A Ripple in the Water
by Stuckinmycocoon
Summary: A collection of mostly chronological and very much related shorts that I'm intentionally not calling a multi-chapter fic. One shots, two shots, maybe more shots. It's my look at what happens at the tail end of season 2 and what will happen in season 3 as I deal with the show's hiatus. A little AU for 2x22, likely very AU for season 3, but what can I say? I'm not Joss Whedon.
1. Sacrifice

_Disclaimer: Don't own it. Wish I did._

 _Author's Note: When I was watching the second season finale, this was where my head thought it was going. Turns out, I was wrong, but I still like the idea, so here it is. This picks up at the end of season 2 episode 22, but goes AU from there. It starts towards the end of the fight scene between Mack, Fitz, Coulson, and Gordon, but Mack gets knocked unconscious. As for the repercussions of that one small change, you'll just have to see. Let me know what you think? Unbeta'd, so apologies in advance for any mistakes._

* * *

 **Sacrifice**

Fitz raced to the chest to secure it, tucking his pole underneath his arm so both hands were free. Gordon could just unlock it again, but why make it easy on the Inhuman? Coulson knelt by Mack.

"It's okay, he's alive, he's just knocked out," he called back to Fitz.

Fitz nodded, heart in his throat. It was just him and Coulson against the Inhuman, and he was no fighter. He was just half of Fitzsimmons, the Science Twins. It was times like this that he wished he'd learned at least some self-defense. If he made it out of this alive, he'd ask May. She offered once, when he saw her training with Skye. This time, he'd take her up on that offer.

He stood back up, and felt the hair on the back of his neck rise to attention. Suddenly, Gordon was behind him and there was a strange new pressure around his pole. The world seemed to come to a halt, time stopped. But the Inhuman wasn't moving to attack him. He looked down and watched his hands, one at a time, release the pole – it stayed where it was – and slowly backed away. He spun around.

The pole had impaled Gordon through the abdomen, and he slowly started falling forward, hitting his knees on the ground and collapsing against the chest. Coulson started to move towards him and, at first, Fitz couldn't figure out why. Then he saw the blue crystal flying from Gordon's hand into the air, and his life flash before his eyes.

"Jemma..." he whispered, wishing he could see her one last time. He'd seen what had happened to Tripp, and he'd know if his parents were Inhuman descendants, right? And then he saw Coulson catch the crystal before shattering on the floor. He was saved, but Coulson was slowly turning to stone, a look of horror on his face.

"Director!" he cried out. Oh dear god, what could he do? He couldn't knock the crystal out of his hand, they'd all die, including Coulson, and if it got into the exhaust, the whole ship could die. So he had to watch, as the man he looked up to, sacrificed his life to save them all.

He moved next to Mack, who was stirring. "Turbo?" Mack asked weakly. "What...?"

"Gordon's down. I, uhh, actually he, uhh, he impaled himself on my pole when he teleported behind me..."

"Atta boy, Turbo."

"But Coulson, he..." and Fitz found he couldn't continue. He was struggling not to cry, and he knew if he spoke, the floods would come and he wouldn't be able to stop them.

"He what?" Mack sat up, shoving Fitz out of the way. "COULSON!" He moved towards his fallen axe, to remove the offending part by any means necessary, but it was no good. Only Coulson's face was left uncovered by the rock, and soon, not even that. "NOOO!"

Somebody burst through the door. "What...?" The question died out as she saw the statue on the floor, and she lunged towards him. Mack grabbed her, stopping her.

"You touch him, it could infect you too," he warned, as he held her. He debated knocking her out, as he knew he couldn't hold Agent May back if she put her mind to it. But his words must have registered, because she stopped fighting him. Her knees buckled, and he set her down next to Fitz, who had lost his battle against his tears.

"Skye?" he asked her softly.

"She won." After defeating the redheads and securing them, she and Lincoln had run after Skye. They found her weak on the deck, her father cradling the dead body of her mother, and no quinjet or crystals in sight. May had wanted to stay with her, to...comfort her? – the feelings were strange, as they usually were around Skye – but she knew there might still be other battles going on. Skye, barely able to rise, had wanted to come and help too, but May ordered her student to stand down. Lincoln stayed, to guard and care for her, and she ran off to the HVAC room.

"Then it's over," Mack said.

May nodded. "Dammit Coulson," she said. "Why do you have to be so damn self-sacrifing?"

As if her words had prompted it, the rock began to break apart. They thought it was the end, but it was a new beginning. The rock flaked off Coulson rather than breaking him with it, and he emerged from the cocoon, unharmed.

"What the bloody fuck?" Mack said, and all May could do was nod her agreement. Who knew?


	2. Transitions

_Disclaimer: Don't own it. Wish I did._

 _Author's Note: Here goes the second part. Mostly just end of season filler, before we get into the new stuff, bu the new stuff requires you knowing this stuff. I promise, it'll get more interesting. Let me know what you think? And if you'd like to see something happen?_

* * *

 **Transitions**

Once they reached the Playground, Lincoln took over Coulson's recovery. None of them liked it, but he had the most experience and Skye stayed with him and Coulson most of the time. That made May a little happier. She wished she could be there to, breathing over Lincoln's shoulder, making sure he wasn't screwing up, but she had a million things to do to keep S.H.I.E.L.D. going during Coulson's recovery. She still checked in, a couple of times of day, but often she was at the aircraft carrier, mopping up the mess. After taking to Dr. Garner, Agent Weaver had decided to take a break from leadership duties for a while. She still held her seat on the board, but she was realizing just how much she wanted to return to science. Science was fun; management...not so much.

Mack stayed. Coulson's sacrifice had touched him deeply, though he was still very wary about the transformation that happened after it. Having his boss essentially reincarnate not once, but twice, was pretty...weird. Coulson insisted the entire team undergo psych evaluations, and Mack found out that he respected Dr. Garner. Either way, it resulted in him being put in charge of all the alien crap, so he had the authority to refuse to let anyone touch the creepy stone thing. Including Fitzsimmons. Like, absolutely ever. That thing was never seeing the light of day. Not in a thousand years. He did sign off on them moving it to the Playground. It would be easier to keep an eye on everything if it were all together.

Bobbi was still in the medical ward at the Playground, along with Coulson. Lincoln's acupuncture needles had helped enormously with her pain and healing process as while, but she had to be sedated while the treatments were going on. Ward's torture had left permanent scars on her psyche, and no one was sure what would happen after she recovered. Dr. Garner had a pretty good idea, but he wasn't sharing it with anyone. Hunter stayed with Bobbi. That didn't surprise anyone. They were planning on taking a trip somewhere warm once she healed. Hawaii maybe, or Mexico. Somewhere with beaches, though definitely not Tahiti.

It took almost a week for Coulson to finish the transitioning treatments. Skye remembered what Lincoln had told, in what seemed like a life ago: "Imagine a thousand years of evolution taking place instantaneously. That's what happened to you, after the Mist. These treatments, we're helping your body adjust properly to the change, transitioning you quickly and painlessly. I hope." It wasn't clear yet, what Gift Coulson had been given. She also remembered, in what seemed like two lifetimes ago, the treatment she got from S.H.I.E.L.D. after passing through the Mist, and couldn't help but contrast it with Coulson's. There was no quarantine for Coulson, no big white suits, no dearth of human touch. He could get hugs, if he wanted them. But she didn't blame S.H.I.E.L.D. With her, they didn't know any better. Coulson began planning Project CATEPILLAR while he was still resting. He wanted her to be a part of it, maybe even lead it. A team centered around people with powers. Would he be on it? she'd asked. He hadn't answered, but he directed the same question to Lincoln. Lincoln also didn't answer. Later, he questioned Lincoln about whether the Inhumans kept records. He wanted to know if they had genealogies, if they could track how he came by the Inhuman genetics. Lincoln didn't answer that question either.

Once Coulson recovered, he returned to his Director's duties and the first thing May asked for was some time off. When Andrew left at the same time, even though they disappeared in separate vehicles, he had his suspicions, but he didn't question it. May needed the time; he knew his almost second death was hard on her. The first one had almost destroyed her. If she still hadn't been so numb after Bahrain.

He also agreed to Skye's request, about Cal. He had, in the end, helped them, and saved Skye's life at the expense of killing the love of his life. Coulson was all about redemption and second chances. And the fact that Cal wouldn't know that Skye was his daughter...it was selfish, and Coulson knew it, but he kinda liked it that way. He had been Skye's father figure before Cal had entered their lives; he'd like to take on that role again. He even let her drive Lola to visit the new Dr. Winslow once the veterinary clinic was set up.

Fitzsimmons and Agent Weaver through their energies into figuring out the Monolith, but it wasn't easy as Mack consistently stonewalled them. No, they couldn't drop a probe in, no matter how much they could learn from it. Not in a thousand years.


	3. Heritage, part 1

_Disclaimer: Don't own it. Wish I did._

 _Author's Note: This follows up a part of "Transitions", so read that first if you haven't yet, and it'll make more sense. In the "Heritage" plot line, some questions will be answered, but in answering them, more questions will arise. Let me know what you think?_

* * *

 **Heritage, Part 1**

Skye confronted Lincoln outside of the recovery room. "You never answered Coulson's question."

"You mean, about joining your little group of powered people? Skye, I'm not ready for that yet. We've been in hiding for so long, and it's worked. Are _you_ sure you want to break that? Let the world know you exist? Just, join the Avengers or something if you want the fame, but leave me out of it, please."

"It's not about fame," she argued, though this was not the topic she wanted to talk about. "It's about protecting the world, being the shield against bad stuff, like aliens and crazy evil super-soldiers. And if I have anything to say about it, we'd stay anonymous, very anonymous. Jiaying was right about that much. Just think on it. I will, too. But that wasn't the question I was talking about."

"The genealogies."

"You never answered Coulson about that, either."

"There are some records. They're not complete. Jiaying, she had them. She'd use them, to find more of us. But Coulson, I think he'd use them to find out about himself, sure, but also to track down more of us. And Index us. And I don't want that. Do you?"

"I think Coulson has a right to know about himself. When he touched that crystal, he did it to save everyone on that ship. He didn't think he'd survive it. I mean, before all this, did Jiaying tell if someone was Inhuman by throwing a crystal at them and seeing what happened?"

"No, of course not. It was controlled, well-researched. And just in case we were wrong, which wasn't likely, the person had a choice on whether to go through the Mist. Not everyone wanted it, after all."

"No shit." She could have done without.

"I know, you didn't get that choice. Nor did Coulson. If it means anything, I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. But I found my link to the Inhumans. I know why it happened to me. He's still in the dark."

Lincoln paused. "How's this? I'll go. Once he's finished transitioning, I won't be needed here anymore. Unless I'm to be a prisoner, I'll go, find Coulson the answer he's looking for."

"You're not a prisoner, but, if it's alright with you, I'd like to go to. It's my heritage. Growing up, like I did, I never had a heritage before. I won't tell Coulson anything you don't agree with. We'll make those decisions together."

"You're an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, Skye. You expect me to believe you'd keep something from your director?"

"You'd be surprised about what I've kept from him. And I'm Inhuman, too. So are you. So is he, for that matter, now. But it's a conflict of interest for him. If you let, I'll be the liaison, looking after both interests."

"Alright. I trust you. Don't make me regret this."

"I won't."

"So, what other secrets have you kept from him? You know, just so I know you can..."

"I never told you how I joined S.H.I.E.L.D, did I?" Lincoln shook his head. "Well, it wasn't exactly the usual thing. You see, I was kidnapped. No, that's not the best place to start. I hacked them, I guess is where it started."

"Still, kidnapping? Seems...extreme..."

"Well, I expected to be caught. I could _not_ have, I'm that good. I hacked the N.S.A. satellites in under an hour."

"You what?"

"That was like, last year. Anyway, as I said, I wanted to get caught. Not that I told them that. I wanted the truth about my parents, and I thought S.H.I.E.L.D. had it, so I let them think that they reformed the Rising Tide hackivist..." Skye continued telling Lincoln the story of her relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D.


	4. The Monolith, part 1

_Disclaimer: Don't own it. Wish I did._

 _Author's Note: Anyone know what happened to Simmons? Me neither, but here's the start of an idea. Let me know what you think?_

* * *

 **The Monolith, part 1**

"Hey, Skye, Lincoln, have you seen Simmons this way?" Fitz popped his head in the medical bay. Coulson had been released, but Lincoln had agreed to help with Bobbi. His needles could speed up her recovery and reduce her dependence on pain medication, both of which Bobbi was in favor of, but they found that they needed to sedate her during the treatments. Her PTSD from Ward torturing her was just too much. Dr. Garner had been working with her, but he'd left a few days ago, recommending her to a S.H.I.E.L.D therapist, whom she had yet to speak to. It had put off Lincoln and Skye's planned trip, but he couldn't say no when they asked him. He was a healer, after all, even though Fitzsimmons constantly were trying to weigh and measure the effects of his electric acupuncture, trying to find the science behind it. It had been hard enough to get them to admit the "alternative" medicine worked, but seeing Bobbi wake up afterward proved it did rather nicely.

"No, sorry," Skye said. "She hasn't been this way in a while. I thought she was working on the stone with you?"

"The Monolith? We were, but then I left and she was going to come find me shortly. I thought maybe she'd stopped the check on Bobbi." He flushed, and Skye raised an eyebrow. "I asked her, I asked her to dinner."

"Oh Fitz, really?" She hugged him. "It's finally happening!"

"Before...everything with the aircraft carrier..."

"You mean before my mom tried to wipe out S.H.I.E.L.D?" she asked wryly.

"Yes, that. Before I left, she told me that we should talk about what I told her, you know, when we were trapped after Ward...yeah, that. It wasn't the right time, and after she blew me off the first time, I wasn't sure I wanted to, ever, but then after Gordon released that crystal and I almost died, I realized life's too short to have regrets. So, dinner. But where is she? You don't think she's backing out, do you?"

"Of course not. You're Fitzsimmons. She probably just got involved in some project. Are you sure she's not still with the Monolith?"

"I'm going back that way, to check."

"I'll join you." She turned to Lincoln. "You want to join the Simmons search?" She dropped her voice to whisper conspiratorially, "I can't believe this is finally happening!"

"You said that already. Yeah, alright."

They wandered through the base, checking all the usual places – the rest of the medical wing, the labs, Simmons' bunk, the common areas, but nobody had seen her.

"FITZSIMMONS!" Mack's roar surprised them all. They followed his voice to find him standing in the storage room that held the Monolith.

"What, Mack?" Fitz asked, before stopping short. The door of the Monolith's enclosure was open. "What the...?"

"That was my question. I thought I made it clear that we were never in a million years going to open this damn thing!"

"It was closed when I left," Fitz protested.

"Where's Simmons, then?"

Fitz's face fell. "Nobody knows," Skye answered for him.

"Well, there's one way to figure this out. Skye, can you access the security feed for this room?"

"Of course," she said, with an eye roll.

"Guys," Lincoln interrupted. "I thought we said that thing was dangerous. Who's going to close the door?" They all looked at each other.

"I could probably vibrate it closed from a distance," Skye offered.

"Absolutely not," Mack said. "No powers around this thing. That means you, too, Lincoln. In fact, I want you both out of this room."

"Geez, alright, I was just offering," Skye protested, but they left.

Fitz and Mack looked at each other. "I'll do it," Fitz said. "I was the second-to-last one here."

"No, this alien crap is my responsibility. I'll do it." Mack grabbed a long pole, and managed to poke the door closed without incidence. The latches shut automatically. "But you're designing a lock for that damn thing so this doesn't happen again. Now, let's see what happened."

They found Skye and Lincoln in front of a monitor as Skye was fastforwarding through the video feeds. "I found today," she said, finally running it at normal speed only to hear Fitz's voice saying, "Dinner".

"Uh, you can fast-forward through that bit," he said embarrassed. Skye giggled, but she sped it until Simmons was alone.

"Here we go." They all looked at the screen. Simmons seemed to realize the door of the enclosure was cracked open, and when she reached out to close it, the stone turned to liquid and engulfed her. Then it went back to its normal rocky self.

"OH. MY. GOD."

Fitz took off, but Mack caught up to him at the entry to the storage room, grabbing him by the back of his shirt. "No way, Turbo."

"SHE'S IN THERE!" He struggled, but Mack held him tight. "SIMMONS! SIMMONS!" he screamed over and over again. "We have to get her out. SIMMONS!"

"Fitz, look. Do you see her? No, you see the Monolith. Looking like it normally does. You open that gate, you end up there too maybe. Not happening on my watch."

"I don't bloody care. SIMMONS!"

Skye came up after them, putting both hands on Fitz's shoulders and making him look at her. "Fitz. Fitz, look at me. We're all in shock here. But you're gonna have a better chance getting her out of there if you don't end up in there too. Fact is, you may be her best chance. So think, Fitz, think. You're good at that." He seemed to calm, slightly. She turned to Lincoln. "Lincoln, can you find Coulson, please? Tell him what happened." He nodded and ran off. She turned back to Fitz. "We're gonna work this out, you hear me? She's not gone. She's not."


	5. The Monolith, part 2

_Disclaimer: Still don't own it. Still wish I did._

 _Author's Note: Poor Fitz. It's can't be easy having your best friend (and potential love interest?) eaten by an alien artifact like that. And he's got a long way yet to travel. "The Monolith" plot line is a slow build, so hang in there. But we find out a little more about Coulson's new ability in this part, so that's something. Let me know what you think?_

* * *

 **The Monolith, part 2**

Simmons had been missing a week, and they were still no further in figuring out what had happened to her. May came running once they got in contact with her; she was there within the day. Poor woman, barely three days into her three-week vacation. Andrew returned four days after her, once Fitz had collapsed due a combination of malnutrition, dehydration, and sleep deprivation, after working the clock around. He slept for twenty-four hours, on an IV to replenish his fluids and nutrients. Skye made it her personal mission to make sure he ate and slept after that. It wasn't easy. Lincoln couldn't tell them much; only that he'd heard Gordon, Raina, and Jiaying talking about it, saying that it was Kree and rumored to be able to destroy the Inhumans, but none of those three were alive to interrogate. They could tell he wasn't very happy releasing that information.

Fitz, Mack, and Agent Weaver spent every waking hour running tests on the Monolith, and comparing them to the previous readings. They were the same. It was utterly perplexing, and stumping the geniuses. Skye built a program to run through the internet and every database she could get into, scanning them for any mention of the stone or its picture. She got a lot of hits, and all of them false positives. Even the S.H.I.E.L.D database couldn't help them much. Even Bobbi and Hunter did what they could; they brought boxes of old SSR files to Bobbi's sickroom and they two of them combed through them in between Bobbi's treatments and sleep.

Coulson had a problem, and finally, he called May into his office to talk it over. "I can't find her, May," he said, defeated. "I can find things I've been missing for decades – I know exactly where a medal I won for a field day in fifth grade is located right at this minute, I found you in Costa Rica, and I know that Pietro Maximoff is right now at the Avengers compound even though he supposedly died in Sokovia – but I can't find Simmons."

May said nothing.

"There are only two logical answers at this point. One, the alien artifact is somehow blocking my ability. And two, Simmons can't be found because she's..." he couldn't continue.

"Because she's no longer alive." May finished the sentence for him, but wasn't too happy about it either.

"Yes."

"And there's a third possibility."

"Hmm?"

"You're still figuring out how your new...ability works. Have you ever tried to find someone whom you knew was dead?"

"Yes."

"Did it work?"

"No."

"Okay, how about somebody in a coma?"

"Yes, I can."

"What about Lady Sif?"

"You think she can help?" Coulson seemed to consider this. "Well, beyond the difficulty in contacting her directly..."

"No, I mean, can you find her?"

Coulson paused. "Oh. No, I can't."

"So there are limitations other than death on your ability."

"Unfortunately, I don't know of anyone else who had been engulfed in an alien artifact to run a comparison with." May raised one elegant eyebrow. "Different artifact!" he protested. "And I'd have to try it while they were in the...cocoon to attempt the experiment under the same conditions and I don't think that that scenario is very feasible at the current time."

He had a point. "Fair enough."

"And yes, I can find Lincoln, and Skye, and the Inhumans we let go, just like anyone else."

"That's a useful way to keep track of them."

"I didn't know it then, but yes, you're right." He paused. "But your comment about Lady Sif brings up an interesting point. Do you think we're at the point where we should ask for Asgardian help? They are familiar with the Kree-"

"And aren't exactly friendly with them..." The scenes that led up to Skye shooting herself with an ICER were fiercely burned into May's memory. And the moment before she realized it was an ICER, and not a bullet, ranked up there among the scariest moments of her life, although she didn't quite understand why.

"– well, no, but they will probably know more than we do..."

"Until they decide it's too dangerous in human hands and ship the Monolith back to Asgard without any consideration for Simmons." That interruption was courtesy of Skye, who was lounging against Coulson's open office door.

"This is a private conversation, _Agent_ Skye."

"Door's open," she commented. "Can't be too private. And are you really going to pull the clearance level bullshit right now?" No one answered her. "I want to help Simmons as much as anyone, but is this really the best way? Can we just take a minute to remember the last time we had a Kree artifact, an agent...touched by it, and Asgardian involvement?"

"We remember, Skye," May assured her.

"But we still have to consider all our options," Coulson reminded them. "Including this one."

"How about a new option to consider?"

"Do you have a suggestion?"

"It's what I came to talk with you about. Lincoln and I were talking. Before this thing with Simmons, we were going to go back to Afterlife to look into these genealogies you wanted," she said, turning to Coulson.

"Ha! I knew they existed."

"Maybe we can find some information there about the Monolith as well. The Inhumans did know about it, and I'm striking out just about everywhere else except for the original document about the acquisition of the rock, which doesn't say much. And we're not much use here, right now. Lincoln's knowledge of the thing was tapped out on day one, and somebody else can babysit Fitz while I'm gone."

"That's a...reasonable thought."

"If we can't find anything there, maybe then we can reconsider the Asgard idea."

"It's a valid point, Phil. And as you mentioned, they've always come to us. We've never tried to contact them. And the Avengers still don't know you're alive, so trying to touch base with Thor through them is also not possible."

"Seriously? They still think you're dead?"

"Yes. And it was very important tor Director Fury that it stay that way."

"Surely, since you're the director of S.H.I.E.L.D now..."

"Not up for discussion, Skye," Coulson said, his tone final.

"Fine, another time. But about the Afterlife trip..."

"I'll sign off on it. It'll be a good chance for me to look into the Inhumans as well."

"Lincoln...he won't agree to show us the files if you come along," she told Coulson. Coulson and May both turned _the look_ on her. Dammit! This was not an easy conversation to have with your sort-of parental figures who also happened to be your superior officers. She could curse Lincoln right now for throwing her to the wolves, so she no qualms loading it all on him. "Lincoln's worried about the repercussions of what would happen if S.H.I.E.L.D got their hands on all of the Inhuman documents. He's not...ready for that yet."

"And how do you feel, Skye?" Skye noticed that May didn't put the _agent_ in front of her name. What did that mean? Did they not think she was an agent anymore, that she was siding with the Inhumans?

"idon'twannahavetopicksidesrightnow," she mumbled.

"Excuse me?"

"I said, I don't want to have to pick sides right now. I sided with S.H.I.E.L.D against the ones that attacked us, including my own mother, because it was the right thing to do," she said louder. "But not every Inhuman was part of that. So I don't know if we should just treat them all like enemies, I don't know if that's right."

There was a long silence following her declaration, during which May and Coulson shared a look and May said two words – "Big brother".

"Alright. I appreciate Lincoln's concerns. I will not attend, but you will not go alone. Neither of you can pilot a plane, and it's not like Gordon can come pick you up anymore."

"Right..." Skye trailed off. It was the hole in this plan to begin with.

"May will go with you."

"Uhh..."

"Lincoln will tell her what he's comfortable sharing with her, and by extension, me. We will not confiscate the files. In addition to finding the information about Simmons and myself that you're looking for, you all will use this time to gather intel to figure out how to move forward with the relationship between S.H.I.E.L.D and the Inhumans, and no decisions will be made until after you return. Is that an acceptable compromise? Can you ensure Lincoln will also agree?"

"I believe he will, yes," Skye said.

May looked at Coulson. "Fine. Wheels up in an hour. Go find Lincoln and tell him what we've talked about." Skye nodded, and left.

"Well, that was interesting," Coulson said finally.


	6. Heritage, part 2

_Disclaimer: Still not Joss Whedon. Still don't own it. Still wish I did._

 _Author's Note: And so we pick up with the second part of the "Heritage" plot line. There will at least be a third, so don't think we're ending here, and stay tuned for more on the way! We'll see most of this section through Lincoln's point of view. And he's feeling more than a little conflicted right now. Let me know what you think?_

 **Heritage, part 2**

It was a long time before they were able to leave, long after Coulson finished his treatments. Simmons had disappeared into the Monolith. Skye had refused to leave and she begged Lincoln to stay, to help, if he knew anything. He didn't know much, but he agreed. He'd never understand the relationship between Dr. Simmons and Skye – Skye said they were friends, but Dr. Simmons didn't seem very friendly to anything alien, though not nearly so much as Agent Mack – but he didn't have to understand to know that Skye was hurting because of the scientist's disappearance. And he wanted to keep her from hurting. He didn't know where these feelings had come from, or what they meant, but now was not the time to figure it out.

May was back. The disappearance of Simmons had cut her vacation short once they'd gotten a hold of her. It had been easy enough to find her, once Coulson's gift had revealed itself. He could find people and things with only a thought. He had to see the person first, even if it was just a picture. It had come up rather suddenly in the craziness following Simmon's disappearance. When she hadn't met Fitz as planned, and nobody could find her, they'd reviewed the security tapes and saw her swallowed by the Monolith. Mack was pissed, but too upset to gloat over how he knew something like this might happen if someone opened that damn container. Skye had said that May should be told, and where the hell was she anyway? Coulson piped up with, "Costa Rica". And then looked shocked. May hadn't confided her vacation plans to anyone, including him. But it allowed them to get a hold of her, and she was back within a day. But Coulson couldn't find Simmons.

It had been his idea to visit Afterlife then. The Inhumans knew about the Monolith; maybe there would be something in their files that could help Simmons. And they didn't seem to be much use at the Playground. Mack still wouldn't let powered people anywhere near the Monolith, and that included Coulson. Coulson had insisted they take May; after all, they needed a pilot to get there. Lincoln had explained their reservations about allowing S.H.I.E.L.D full access to the Inhuman documents, and surprisingly, May backed them up. She made a cryptic comment and suddenly Coulson agreed to it. So that is how Lincoln found himself, on a quinjet, flying with May and Skye to Afterlife.

"I'm going to go talk to May," Skye said, unbuckling herself. "You don't mind?"

"No, of course not," Lincoln assured her. He knew what she was really asking, if he'd give them some privacy, and he was agreeing to that too. Not that there was much privacy in a quinjet. He watched her walk into the cockpit. The plane was noisy enough that it sort of covered the sound of their conversation, but he could have made it out if he wanted to. He choose not to. He knew Skye didn't want him to. But that didn't mean he wasn't curious if they were talking about his people. Their people. The Inhumans. He tried to meditate, to clear his mind. He didn't know what to expect once they got to Afterlife, and that worried him.

"Strap in. We're landing in five," May's voice called out, interrupting his meditations. It was an unnecessary warning, he was still strapped in, but he appreciated it as he felt the loss of altitude.

As they disembarked, May handed Skye an ICER. At her quizzical look, she explained, "It's just a precaution. I don't think we'll need them, but after our last visit here, it's better to be prepared." Skye took the ICER.

"At least it's only ICERS," Lincoln muttered.

As it turned out, they weren't needed. There was not a soul in sight. "Where is everyone?" Skye wondered aloud.

"After S.H.I.E.L.D attacked – after the quinjet attacked us, Gordon took most of us into hiding. Well, some went before the meeting, just to be on the safe side." He looked abashed. "I think you were unconscious for some of it."

She rested a hand on his shoulder. "Not your fault."

"So, where are they?" May asked.

"Trust me, I don't know. He probably returned some of them home, the ones he could anyway, and brought anyone who was too physically changed or anyone being _hunted_ -" the emphasis was clear as he glared at May- "to a safehouse. And don't bother asking me where that is. I don't know. I've never been there. I just go home, to Cinci, when I'm not here. Or lately, with S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Nobody lived at Afterlife," Skye told May, backing Lincoln up. "Nobody except Jiaying. And it's hard to get in and out without Gordon."

"Fine. Lincoln, can you take us to the records so we can find what we're looking for?"

"Follow me," he said. After a while, Skye knew where he was going. She had met Jiaying there once, but the office was a lot bigger than it seemed then. A panel opened into another huge room, filled with...paper?

"Wait, paper? I guess I should have expected that, but didn't you digitize anything?" Skye asked. For some reason, she'd had it in her head that this whole issue could resolve itself in a quick database search after hacking into their servers.

"No," was Lincoln's short reply.

"I guess we have to start digging," May said, resigned. "Any filing system here, at all?" It reminded her of her days in admin. For all she had wanted to be there, she was glad she wasn't anymore. Paperwork was tedious at the best of times.

"I wouldn't know. Didn't spend much time here."

"Okay. We'll each start with a box. Flip through the papers at the top and if it's not on topic, put it to the left side of the room. If it is, look more closely to make sure, then put it in the outside office. We're looking for genealogies, for Coulson, and anything about the Monolith, for Simmons," May said, taking charge.

It took hours. Very few boxes went into the front room, until Lincoln found the payload. "I think I found the genealogical records," he said, gesturing to a group of boxes.

"That's great," Skye said, wiping her dusty arm against her dusty face. "Damn this dust is doing nothing for my allergies. Let's take a look."

"Actually," Lincoln said, holding back. "I'd rather start sorting this on my own. This is stuff I don't think S.H.I.E.L.D has a right to have. Not now, anyway. But if I find anything about your Director Coulson, I'll let you know, okay?"

May and Skye exchanged a long look. "Alright," May said finally. "But only while we're still looking for information on the Monolith. If we finish that and you're still working, we're reconsidering this deal. There's no reason to make this take longer than absolutely necessary."

"I can deal with that," Lincoln agreed, mentally preparing himself to work as quickly as possible. "Can you give me family names other than Coulson to work with?"

"His mother's name was Julie...Julie, what was her maiden name...ah, Julie Mary Shine, but apart from that, you'd have to ask him," May told him.

"Can we radio him? This will go faster with more names to search for."

"I can get him on my cell," May offered.

"Cell phones don't really work out here," Skye said, laughing slightly as she remembered trying it.

"Oh. The quinjet has a connection that'll work. Skye, you stay, keep looking for Monolith stuff. Lincoln, follow me. I'll hook you up." Skye almost grumbled – she was the comms officer, after all, and the one with a dust allergy – but May always had a reason for everything she did, and all grumbling would get her was a glare from her unimpressed S.O.. And Skye did not feel like disappointing May. Not now. Not ever again. So she turned back to the dusty old boxes. She categorized the Monolith in her head under 'Crazy Kree Technology', so she looked for keywords around that. This would be sooooo much easier with a database and a search engine, dammit!

* * *

 _Author's Note 2: Clark Gregg's mother's maiden name is Shine. I found out so on wikipedia, so I gave it to Julie Coulson, since I don't think her maiden name was ever revealed. If anyone knows differently, let me know!_


	7. Clearing the Air, part 1

_Disclaimer: Don't own it. Wish I did._

 _Author's Note: This picks up on the Quinjet ride to Afterlife, during "Heritage, part 2". It's basically the first part of a long conversation between Skye and May. Let me know what you think?_

* * *

 **Clearing the Air, part 1**

The thought had been going through her head as they flew to Afterlife. Around and around and around again. What did May mean when she said "Big Brother" to Coulson that made him so magically come around to their point of view? And May told her on the aircraft carrier that she forgave her for using her powers on her, but did she? And other then them needing a pilot, why was she along? She knew she should be focused on the mission at hand – find out about the Monolith to help Simmons, trace Coulson's Inhuman genealogy if they had time, find out what happened to the rest of the Inhumans who didn't follow Jiaying into war? Jiaying...her perfect mother, the mother she had always dreamed of finding, the mother who tried to kill her. She shook off that thought, tucking it into the far back of her mind. She knew she'd fall apart if she thought too much about it and that definitely wasn't needed now. But she could do something about the rest of it.

"I'm going to go talk to May," Skye said, unbuckling herself. "You don't mind?"

"No, of course not," Lincoln assured her. She really wanted to ask if not to eavesdrop, but that didn't seem polite. Well, hope for the best.

"Thanks." She went up to the cockpit. "May, can I join you?"

"Sure."

Skye sat down in the co-pilot's chair. The cockpit was smaller than the Bus' but it kinda felt like old times. "Thank you for backing us up there, with Coulson. Lincoln thinks that if Coulson had the genealogies and everything, he'd try to Index everyone and he didn't want that."

"What about you?"

"I...I guess I really don't know. I mean, I can see both sides, pros and cons. It's not black or white, good or bad. You taught me that."

"Hmm."

"Can I ask you about what you said to Coulson? What made him change his mind so sudden?"

May paused. "You mean the Big Brother comment?" Skye nodded. "We had a conversation while he was still recovering, about what to do with the sudden influx of people with powers, of a community of powered people. We Indexed everyone from the aircraft carrier, and let them go."

"I know. I was...surprised. They attacked S.H.I.E.L.D."

"That's was my first thought too. Lincoln showed me the truth. "We're not bad, just misled," he told me at one point during the fight. And then he took down the angry redheads. And I told the same thing to Coulson. Since they attacked us, we Indexed them, to be on the safe side. But did we really want to go in, guns blazing, and deal with a whole community? It was different before, when it was the occasional person now and again, like Mike Peterson. But did we need to go 'Big Brother' on all of them, just because they're powered? Did we have that kind of jurisdiction? Besides, we didn't know about them before, so why was now different? Because a group of them attacked us? We dealt with that group. As for the rest of it, it's a new S.H.I.E.L.D, a different S.H.I.E.L.D." She paused. "Not to speak ill of the dead, Gonzales was a good agent, but he had a blind spot when dealing with anything...out of the ordinary. A leader needs to be more...open-minded. Bobbi even realized that, she came to me with her concerns."

"She did?" Skye wasn't proud of the fact that her voice squeaked.

"You wanna unpack that?"

"At the cabin, I...I kinda hit her with my powers. I figured, she'd be pissed."

"I forgave you."

"About that..."

"I said, I forgave you. Enough said. Bobbi was never mad, not at you. She defended you. Gonzales called you a thing, armed and hostile. Bobbi called you an agent, scared and defending yourself. She told me that Calderon fired on you, after you dropped your weapon. She was actually incensed that he fired a real bullet on an unarmed agent."

"She was?"

"She was. She knew all you did was defend yourself in the only way you could. And honestly, I think she lost some faith in Gonzales after that incident."

"Oh."

"Stop beating yourself up about it. But, back on track, please, Coulson hasn't really decided yet. To be truthful, that's one of the reasons I'm along. To see what intel I can gather, and to see if we can start trying to figure it out. I'm hoping we can figure out who the new leader of the Inhumans is, now that both Jiaying and Gordon are gone."

"Oh. Thanks, May. Thanks for telling me that, for looping me in, for being honest."

"No matter what anyone else says, as far as I'm concerned, you're still an agent. And I'm still your S.O. So, yeah, you should have the details of a mission." Skye smiled. "What?"

"It's just, that's the most you've said to me in a while."

May refrained from rolling her eyes but it was a near thing."Strap in, Skye, here or back there. We're landing in five," she said, calling out the same thing to Lincoln.


	8. Omega-3, part 1

_Disclaimer: Still don't own it. Still wish I did._

 _Author's Note: Fish oil contains omega- fatty acids, which are good for your brain, your heart, your cholesterol, and more. They say it has the power to change your life. I don't think this is what the advertisers meant. Let me know what you think?_

* * *

 **Omega-3, part 1**

It was day two of the mission to Afterlife, and they hadn't gotten very far. Lincoln had been pouring through the genealogies, speed-reading each page to pick up on any of Coulson's family names with no luck. Skye and May had finally found a box with some potentially useful information, but it was all in Mandarin, to Skye's disappointment. What looked like an old, private journal had a sketched picture of the Monolith, but it was written in an older form of Mandarin. May began to puzzle through it, as Skye went back to the dusty boxes. They did find some more information about the Kree there, but very little of it was in English. Leaving Lincoln and Skye to pour over the files, May went back to the quinjet to update Coulson.

"We found..."

Coulson interrupted her mid-sentence. "No time. I'm sending you a video file of a news broadcast. I hate to say it, but this takes priority." May raised an eyebrow, loaded the file, and hit 'Play'.

"...an outbreak on a new disease has terrified the inhabitants of New Orleans, Louisiana and surrounding environs. People are turning into stone. That's right, stone. And no, these are not very realistic statues. Here's footage sent to the station from a smart-phone..." May watched as somebody underwent the same process she had seen Coulson go through not that long ago. "The CDC is on site, investigating this mostly fatal illness. We have rumors, though not confirmed by anyone in authority, that two individuals emerged from their cocoon of rock unharmed. We also don't know what the cause of this mysterious new disease is, or how people get infected. Most cases seem to be centered around New Orleans, at this time. Here's Dr. Vanessa Calder of the CDC...

"We have not yet been able to isolate the cause of this new disease, which shows minor similarities to the external symptoms of both fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva and epidermodysplasia verruciformis, though both those disorders are rare genetic disorders and have a much slower rate of progression. We're testing to see if a mutation caused one of these disorders to become contagious or spread virally in some manner. Until we can isolate a disease vector, we recommend that people avoid traveling around the New Orleans area, and avoid any unusual changes to their lifestyles. The lithification progess is rapid, so call for medical assistance at the first sign of it. From what little we can tell, it tends to start at the extremities and moves through the body in less than five minutes.

"Thank you, Doctor Calder. We appreciate your work ethic, but all due speed please. The first case of this was seen yesterday, and already 32, no- 33, people have died from it. Keep watching, and we will keep you informed.

"Thank you, John, for that..." the file stopped then and May met Coulson's worried eyes.

"What does this mean?" she asked him.

"It means get Lincoln and Skye and get back here as quick as you can," Coulson responded, and May was out the door before he'd even gotten a chance to finish.

She burst through the door of the office. "We're going to have to wrap this up. Coulson needs us back."

"What's going on?" Skye asked.

"I'll explain on the way. We'll finish this later. Grab anything you might want to bring back. Wheels up in five." She left as quickly as she arrived, needing to do the pre-flight checks on the quinjet. Skye and Lincoln sat there looking at each other, confusion in their eyes.

"Any idea?" he asked.

"Not a clue. I mean, if it were Simmons, I think she would have told us. And I don't think there'd be this incredible hurry."

"Something new?"

"At this point, your guess is as good as mine. So, what can we take?"

"That box you have. Presumably we still need to help Dr. Simmons, so bring that. There's nothing useful here. I've found none of the names your Director Coulson has given me."

"Worth a try. Let's go. May'll be pissed if we're late."

"I'll take that," he offered, motioning towards the heavy box. "You check to see if we missed anything we brought out here."

Skye grabbed her jacket off a chair. "I think this is it. We left most everything in the quinjet."

"Then let's put a move on it. That Agent May of your's is scary."

"She is, and she isn't," Skye temporized. "But when she is, you have no idea."


	9. Omega-3, part 2

_Disclaimer: Still don't own it. Still wish I did._

 _Author's Note: Hmm...so many conflicting theories about how the fish oil will affect people. Here's my version. Let me know what you think?_

* * *

 **Omega-3, part 2**

May landed the quinjet back at the Playground, and immediately they were drawn into a meeting with Coulson, Agent Weaver, Dr. Garner, and Mack. Hunter was also there, to their surprise, but Bobbi was not. "She's resting," Hunter said. Fitz was conspicuously missing, but that did not come as a surprise. Skye would be surprised if anything could tear him away from the Simmons problem. Probably not even the end of the world, or even a visit from his favorite Avenger-engineer, Tony Stark.

"What do you know about this?" Coulson asked, accosting Lincoln as soon as they reached the conference room.

"Only what I saw on the newscast Agent May showed us," Lincoln answered patiently.

"Can you give us any information?" Agent Weaver asked. "This looks like Terrigenesis, but we don't have that much experience to go on."

"More than enough," Mack grumbled.

"In the aircraft carrier, it seemed to happen in the form of a mist," Agent Weaver said, pressing on and suppressing her own memories of that incident. "But in the video, I didn't see a mist."

"Nor did I," Lincoln told her. "Also, the person taking the video did not appear to be affected. Unless our cameraman were also Inhuman and had previously undergone Terrigenesis – at which point, why would he be taking the video, exposing us to the world? – the Mist would normally have affected him too." He seemed unemotional, but Skye could tell he was irritated exposing more Inhuman secrets to S.H.I.E.L.D, though if Terrigenesis had made it onto a world news channel, perhaps the time for secrets was ending.

"So, your assessment is that this is strange," Agent Weaver surmised.

"Understatement," Mack muttered.

"I suppose strange is as good a word as any," Coulson said. "Can we confirm that this is Terrigenesis?"

"What else could it be?" Hunter asked.

"The CDC mentioned some new mutating virus or something," Skye added helpfully. She seemed very involved in her phone, but they knew better than to assume she was off-topic.

"When you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras," Andrew said. His statement received quizzical looks. "Occam's razor. The simplest explanation is often the correct one. Either it's this Terrigenesis you all seem to be familiar with, or it's some strange new mutating virus that shows symptoms of two very different genetic diseases that some of the best infectious disease specialists in the country haven't a clue about or how to pin down."

"Well, when you phrase it like that..." Hunter commented.

"We don't have enough information to jump to any conclusions," Agent Weaver said forcefully.

"Actually..." Skye trailed.

"Skye? You have something to share?" May asked her student.

"One sec..." and suddenly images appeared on the screens in the conference room.

"You're not connected to the terminal, so how did you set this up?" Agent Weaver asked.

"Hacker," was Skye's nonchalant answer. Her team had given up questioning her computer skills a long time ago. It was actually a little annoying to deal with someone new like this. "I set up a ping to let me know when anything connected to this popped up. I figured something like this, definitely viral. Most of it is just people whining, but I found another video."

A window opened on the screen and the agents watched in mild horror as a man started turning to stone, only to have another man chop his hand off with a wood-axe.

"Well, that was..." Agent Weaver trailed off, unable to find the right word.

"Smart thinking," Mack offered.

"I'm surprised someone caught that on camera," Hunter said. He remembered the speed at which the Diviner infected Hartley, the chaos surrounding it, and her ordering him to cut off her arm to save her life, much as this man did.

"I think we should focus our energies on different methods of neutralization that don't involve amputation," Agent Weaver said.

"To my knowledge, there's nothing that can stop the process of Terrigenesis once it's started," Lincoln offered.

"No take backs," Skye said, somewhat ruefully. "There are a few more clips and such, and in all of them, only one person is being affected even if they are in a room with a lot of other people."

"Could the delivery method have changed?"

"It's possible. But the only pure Terrigen crystals are the ones inside the Diviners."

"What do you mean?" Coulson asked sharply.

"The crystals Jiaying has...or had, rather, since they're now in the bottom of the ocean, I understand," he said, looking at Skye, "are impure. Our scientists couldn't find a way to separate the Diviner metal from the Terrigen crystals. It's the Diviner metal that petrifies humans, not the crystals."

"I thought the Mist did that," Skye said. She looked abashed, but continued, "I didn't start petrifying until Raina opened the Diviner and the Mist came out."

"A human can survive the Mist. They can not survive the Diviner metal. We don't really know how it all works, only that it does. Inhumans petrify from the Mist and emerge. Humans petrify from the Diviner metal and don't. Don't ask me why or how; I'm no scientist, and no blue angel to have created them. The Mist released by the pure crystals inside the Diviner are safe for humans as long as neither the crystals themselves nor the metal come into contact with the human. The impure crystals are laced with Diviner metal; our scientists couldn't separate it out. In Jiaying's crystals, the metal aerosolizes with the crystal, when they are broken, hence the effects on both humans and Inhumans."

"If the humans in the vicinity of the infected person are not be affected, the metal must not be aerosolizing then..." Agent Weaver said thoughtfully.

"Well, it's not like we see them holding creepy blue crystals," Mack commented.

They argued back and forth for a while, throwing around ideas with Lincoln, but May and Coulson both honed in on the young hacker.

"Skye?" Coulson asked gently. She looked like she was on the verge of a break-down, and he really didn't want to test her control of her earth-shattering powers today.

She had pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around herself, taking up the smallest amount of space possible. She lifted her head from its resting place on her knees, and they could see the glisten of unshed tears in her eyes. "Tripp..." she managed, before the effort of holding her head up and her tears back became too much. She dropped her head back to her knees and continued in a whisper almost too low from them to hear, "He would have survived it if he hadn't broken it trying to save me. It's all my fault." And then the torrent of tears came, but fortunately no quakes.


	10. Clearing the Air, part 2

_Disclaimer: Nothing's changed. Still don't own it._

 _Author's Note: Poor Skye. With all the mom-and-dad drama of the last few weeks, the Coulson drama, the Inhuman drama, the conflicted loyalties, the Jemma drama, a health crisis that just might go world-wide soon, and now Tripp's death coming up again, the pressure just got too much and she had a perfectly human reaction. That's not to say it isn't embarrassing to have a breakdown in front of everyone you work with. Emotions never seem to have good timing, do they? Will they be understanding, or consider her an unfit agent? You'll have to read on and find out! (Let me know what you think? I'd really appreciate any input, good or bad.)_

* * *

 **Clearing the Air, part 2**

Andrew had cleared the room after Skye's breakdown, but nothing seemed to be able to calm her. He quietly asked Agent Weaver for a mild sedative, and then with Hunter's help, got her down to the med bay to get some rest.

Coulson followed them down. "Andrew..." he started, after they'd placed Skye on the bed in the unit next to Bobbi and Hunter left them.

"Usually I believe people should experience their emotions, good and bad. It's healthy. And after the events of the last few weeks, I'm not surprised something like this happened. Crying is cathartic. But when the crying devolved into a full-scale panic attack and she began scratching at her arms, I judged that perhaps feeling all of this at once was too overwhelming for Skye, so I made the call I did. She's sleeping now, the sedative wasn't strong enough to knock her out, so I'm guessing her body needed the sleep. I'll talk to her when she wakes up."

"Andrew..."

"Anything else, including the contents of that conversation, fall under doctor-patient confidentiality. I'm only telling you this now as a courtesy, and I'll give a report when I'm done if I feel Skye's ability to be in the field is in any way under question."

"Andrew..."

"I will also say that the fact that nothing shook is a very good sign."

"Andrew..."

"Goodbye, Phil. I'll talk to you later. I need to check on Fitz now, and I want to be available when Skye wakes up." The director finally took the hint and left, a little peeved at being ordered around by a consultant who wouldn't even allow him to finish asking his questions.

Hours later, Skye woke up a little confused. She sat up, took in her surroundings, and recognized where she was, but couldn't remember how she got there. She could feel the puffiness in her eyes and the stuffiness of her nose that came from crying, as well as a certain tightness in her chest. Her arms stung, and she looked down on them to see long red welts. She couldn't remember where they came from. She also felt curiously well rested for the first time in weeks, having slept uninterrupted by nightmares. And then the memories started pouring in, about hearing the truth about Tripp's meaningless death and breaking down in front of nearly all of her co-workers, including the people she looked up to the most, and she began to flush a deep red.

"Oh my god, Skye," she said to herself, getting out of bed and pacing. "I can't believe you just did that. How stupid are you? I'll tell you - stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid..."

"Hey, none of that," a voice interrupted. Skye froze. She hadn't realized she wasn't alone. She turned around, but she couldn't see anyone. "I'd come to you, but I can't get out of bed. If you're pacing, you can, so come here," the voice ordered. She recognized that voice; it was Bobbi, and from the sound of it, she was close by.

"Ummm..."

"Please, Skye?"

Time to face the music. She found Bobbi in the room to her right. "I'm sorry if I woke you, that was inconsiderate of me. I should have been more quiet. I didn't realize you were right next door..."

"You didn't wake me, I was up already, so stop apologizing," Bobbi ordered. "You slept a long time."

"I, uhh, haven't been sleeping well, I guess," she admitted, a little shamefully.

"After everything we've been through recently, I'd be surprised if anyone is."

"Oh." Skye said. She paused. "How much..." she trailed off.

"I was awake when they brought you down. I made Hunter tell me." Skye flushed. "Don't be embarrassed for showing a little vulnerability, Skye," Bobbi admonished her gently. "Your friends – your family – isn't going to ostracize you for it."

"Family?" she whispered. Skye knew she felt that way, but she hadn't wanted to say. Between the foster families that never worked out and the recent disaster with her birth family, Skye and families...well, they didn't seem to work out.

"Yes, family. S.H.I.E.L.D's a family for all of us. I mean, it's not like we have lives outside it. I might touch base with my birth family once or twice a year, but it's not like I can talk to them about what I do, you know? Hunter's an orphan, so's Coulson. It's not like May talks to her mother much, Mack talks to his dad once in a blue moon but I don't know the last time he went home for a visit. Nope, it's just S.H.I.E.L.D for all of us. And you're one of us, too."

"I..." she didn't know how to answer that, so she deflected it. "May told me about what you said about me. To Gonzales. After the...incident in the woods. I wanted to say thank you." She paused. Might as well go all in. "But that doesn't seem like enough, does it? Honestly, before she told me, I thought you'd be mad at me."

"Why?"

"I...attacked you."

"You were defending yourself. He never should have fired on you. You had tossed your gun by the time he fired that bullet. And then you did the only thing you could." She paused. The girl across from her didn't look that convinced. "It's like this. I have these batons that deliver a little extra...oomph during a fight. Should I restrict myself to plain old wooden batons because other people don't have the same technology? Or should I use what I have to defend myself in the best way I can?"

"That's different," Skye protested.

"Is it? You used the tools you had at your disposal. Maybe your training wasn't quite up to par, you set off a little more C4 than you needed, so to speak, but I hear good things now. They tell me you've got everything under control. That's impressive, in this short of time."

Hearing Bobbi praise her was making her flush as much as when she first walked in here. "I..."

Bobbi took pity on her. "You wanna help me with something? Tell me what's been going on. I've been kept pretty out of the loop – "Focus on recovery", they say – but keeping me out of it isn't helping any. I'm up to date about Jemma – all hands on deck there – but fill me in on everything else."

Skye paused. "The way Hunter's been talking, I kinda thought you guys would be leaving after you recovered enough."

"I need a vacation. S.H.I.E.L.D's my family, same as you, but people need a break from their families some time. There was a time I thought, maybe, I was done, I've given enough to this organization, but I think I care too much to let go. So bring me up to speed. Let me help, as much as I can between the bedrest and the physical therapy and the acupuncture and all that. My body may be down, but my mind's still sharp as ever. And I'm bored," she said, a little plaintively.

"Alright," Skye agreed with a smile. And she began to fill Bobbi in with the events of the last couple of weeks.

Unbeknownst to them, Andrew was standing in the hallway, out of the site of the room. He had planned on talking to Skye once she woke up, but it seemed like Bobbi had done it for him, and that she told Skye things the younger woman desperately needed to hear from someone in her unconventional "family". As an outsider, he could have told her the same things, but they wouldn't have carried as much weight. That's not to say that he didn't need to talk to her. But it could wait, he thought, as he walked away, leaving the two women to their talk that was as much gossip as intel dump and strategy session. The most help he could be for them, at the moment, was distract Hunter for a little while. And he never did get around to checking on Fitz. Maybe he could talk Hunter into going with him. That would give the girls enough time to talk.


	11. The Monolith, part 3

_Disclaimer: Nothing's changed since the last one._

 _Author's Note: As you might have noticed, Fitz was missing during the last few scenes as everyone else is caught up in the new world health (and possibly Inhuman) crisis that's come up. That leaves him alone, and unattended by the ever-wary Mack, with the Monolith. What ever is he up to?_

* * *

 **The Monolith, part 3**

Everyone else was dealing with the new crisis that had come up, and all Fitz could think was "Don't we have enough crap to deal with already, without this now?" and "You might all have forgotten Simmons, but I won't". Logically, he knew they hadn't forgotten his mate's dilemma. He also knew that they were all agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, and their first job was protection. In this case, to protect the world against an alien bug that turned people to stone. He also knew that he was a S.H.I.E.L.D agent too, and that he should be up there in the conference room with the rest of the team. But he couldn't. Not until he knew Simmons was okay, not until he knew for a fact that leaving her in the Monolith longer wouldn't hurt her more. He'd run every test he could think of, chafing under Mack's restrictions, and still there was nothing more than a blip when it melted and reformed. And a little static in the moments before it melted were all the warning they had. It wasn't like the damn thing kept to a schedule.

He turned a device over and over again in his hands. He'd spent most of three days constructing it. It would give him all sorts of information, like spectrographic analysis, electrical readings, gps sensors, etc. It even had a communication function on a wide-variety of bands, just in case Simmons could get a hold of it. He added a wireless function, but he didn't hold out too much hope that he could get readings in situ. This was completely alien, in more ways than one. And the probe was magnetic. That was important. But it all hinged upon one crucial act. He had to drop it in the container at the exact moment the Monolith melted. Hopefully, it would swallow the probe like it had swallowed Simmons. Then, at some point later, when it melted again, he'd use high-powered magnets to pull the probe out and see what he got. But Mack stymied him at every opportunity. They weren't opening the container. Never in a million years. Look what happened last time. And he'd asked Mack point blank if they could open the door if Simmons suddenly appeared outside the stone. Silence was his only answer.

But now he was alone. And he'd risk Mack's anger if it meant giving Simmons' a fighting chance. If only, if only the Monolith would melt while Mack was away. He built the lock on it; he could easily override it. And he didn't expect he'd get away with it, the added security cams made that most unlikely. But as long as nobody was around to physically stop him...

"If you can hear me, Simmons," he said to the stone, "and if you have any control, make it melt soon. Please just make it melt soon."

Nothing.

"We need you out here. People are turning into stone. We think it's Terrigenesis. But it's weird, they tell me, different from normal." He paused. "Yes, I know I should be helping, but really, what use is an engineer? You'd be the useful one in this case. You've done the research, on Skye and Raina, you'd know what to do."

Still nothing. He didn't know what he expected.

"I'd trade myself for you, if I could," he said, lowering his voice and carefully facing away from the security cams. He didn't need an audience for this. "I'd go in, if you could come out. And if this doesn't work, maybe I'll try that next. Even if you didn't come out, we'd be together. We could finally go get that dinner." His attempt at humor fell flat even to his own ears. "I don't know who I am without you," he admitted. "You'll never understand how lost I felt after you left me to go undercover at Hydra, like a part of me was missing."

He paused again, lost in memory.

"If you didn't want to go out to dinner with me, you could've just told me. No need to be swallowed by an alien artifact. No, wait, I didn't mean that. I just mean...whatever you want our relationship to be, I'll take it. Just as long as we're together. Friendship can be enough."

The memories surged again.

"There was a connection between us from the start. I felt it, I know you did too. It wasn't that we were just the two youngest at SciTech, that we shared similar pasts of going to college early and never really having any friends because we were too much _mind_ for our peers. It wasn't just that we finally met a peer at our level. There was more. I can't explain it more than that. You know I'm not very good with the emotion stuff, and you, sometimes I think you're worse than me. I mean really, it took you that long to figure out I wasn't asking you just to eat with me, but out to dinner, on a date? Given the conversations we'd had about our feelings prior to that?...Wait, no, I didn't mean it like that. Hunter would probably tell me I'm making an arse of myself right now, not that he's the best person to give advice about women. And I don't even know if you can hear me. But, if you can, you know what I mean, don't you? About the connection, whatever it means?"

A blip interrupted his monologue. He turned to look at one of the monitors. A little static. Maybe Simmons had heard him, maybe not. Either way, the Monolith was getting ready to melt. It was time, now or never, he told himself. Nobody was around but him. This was his chance. The static was increasing. Soon, he knew. If, for some reason, Mack or somebody under Mack's orders was watching the monitors, it would take seconds for them to get to the room and pull him away, so he had to time this exactly. Fortunately, the amount of time from when the static started to full melting was one thing the Monolith was consistent about, so he could (and had) planned ahead for this very moment.

"Get ready, Simmons," he said.

Now. Shielding his hands with his body from the cams, he quickly overrode the locking mechanism and released the latches on the door. The Monolith suddenly came crashing down like a tidal wave, and he wasn't ready for it to surge across the floor of the room. "Shit," he thought to himself, jumping back, but not before tossing the probe into the container, hoping that it'll become one with the Monolith once it reassembled, rather than getting left behind on the floor. As quickly as it melted, it hardened again, but there were two significant changes:

One, his probe was gone.

Two, a slender form was lying on the floor in front of the container.

* * *

 _Author's Note 2: Do you think it's Simmons? Because I can think of a couple of different possibilities, depending on what exactly the Monolith is... Leave me a review or a PM and tell me what you want to see! I have an idea about where this is going, but I'll take your comments under advisement, I promise._


	12. The Monolith, part 4

_Disclaimer: Still don't own it._

 _Author's Note: It doesn't seem like anyone has any particular feelings about where this is heading, so I made an executive decision and I won't keep you hanging any longer. But we've not done with the Monolith yet. Not by a long shot. This takes off right after the previous one, but we're shifting perspectives. Let me know what you think?_

* * *

 **The Monolith, part 4**

Hunter was grumbling softly under his breath, which made Andrew grin a little. He looked, and acted, like a disgruntled bear. "I want to go back to Bob," he said, almost whining.

"I know, Hunter," Andrew said, soothingly. "But I really think that your presence will do Fitz some good. Just say hello, try to get him to leave and come join us for dinner, and if not, we'll give him the sandwich I've made him. He'll mope, say it's not like Simmons, I'll agree it isn't, and we'll go from there. Maybe you could tell him Bobbi misses him and wants a visit, or something, anything to get him out of that room and that headspace for even just a half-hour."

"Yeah, yeah, okay," Hunter agreed. Andrew knew the two men had gotten to know each other better after Fitz joined up with Hunter and Coulson following Gonzales' takeover, and literally, he'd had every single other person Fitz knew on the base to try to distract him. Well, except for Bobbi, whose medical issues still made walking difficult. But she was part of this too now, as he'd suggested to Hunter.

Suddenly a scream burst through the air and the two men started running down the hall. It was coming from the room that held the Monolith. They burst into the room, and saw a frightening sight. To start with, the door of the Monolith's containment chamber was open, but it seemed unmoving. Andrew's eyes moved down and saw Fitz kneeling on the floor, his back to them, bent over an unmoving figure. He started moving toward them, but Hunter grabbed his arm.

"I'm the agent," he said. "Stay back. This is dangerous territory. Let me figure out the door first." He moved towards the containment unit, but was stopped by a commanding voice.

"Don't touch." Hunter turned around. Mack was standing in the door.

"Don't look at me, I just got here," Hunter proclaimed hurriedly, holding his hands up.

"I know. Trust me, I know. But there's a protocol to this. The last time I used a pole and that seemed to work..." he was interrupted by a loud bang followed by the sound of a latch clicking into place. They both turned. Fitz had one hand up, the door was now closed.

"The monitors were quiet," he said. "Now help us."

Not needing to be asked twice, Andrew ran the short distance to Fitz and the body on the ground, followed closely by Hunter and Mack, who stopped briefly to engage the lock on the containment chamber. At closer look, he recognized the figure. It was Simmons. He knelt next to Fitz and placed two fingers on her carotid pulse. It was weak, but it was there.

"She's alive," he told the others. "We have to get her to medical."

Mack picked the young scientist up, and started carrying her gently down the hall Hunter and Andrew had just come from. His pace was fast but smooth, as he tried not to jar her.

"Hunter?" Andrew asked.

"Yeah?"

"Go find Agent Weaver. She's the closest we have to a medical doctor right now. And Lincoln. He has some medical training too. And make sure someone tells Phil and Melinda." Hunter nodded and left, without questioning Andrew's right to give him orders, something Andrew appreciated just now.

He turned a clinical eye on Fitz, still kneeling on the floor next to the containment chamber, not even realizing that Simmons had been rushed out of the room. "Fitz," he said gently. No response. Louder, "Fitz." He reached out a hand and placed a finger under the engineer's chin, raising it so he could see his eyes. There was a blankness there. Shock, he surmised. "Fitz, Simmons is alive. I don't how you managed it, but she's out of the Monolith and going to medical."

"Simmons..." he whispered.

"Yes, Simmons. You did it, Fitz. Why don't we go to medical too?" He was still fairly unresponsive, so Andrew lifted his arm around his own shoulders and pulled the smaller man up, half-carrying him down the hall towards the medical bay. He noticed Skye standing at the doorway to Bobbi's room.

"Andrew, what happened?" she asked. "What's going on?" He could hear Bobbi echo the questions. He detoured, and dragged Fitz into the room, dropping him on the comfy chair normally occupied by Hunter. "Simmons is back. Fitz is in shock. I need you two to keep an eye on him, alright?"

"Simmons is back?! What...? How...?" Skye asked, jaw dropping open.

"Don't know the details right now. I promise, once we do, someone will fill you in. Now, can you two do this?"

"Yeah, of course, we'll take care of him," Bobbi said. Andrew thanked her and left the room. He could hear Skye offering him some water, and Bobbi telling her to put a blanket over his shoulders, and he felt comfortable with his decision.

He moved two doors down the hall, pass the room Skye was in, to where he could hear a lot of movement. Simmons was on the bed, stripped out of her filthy clothes and dressed in a hospital gown. Both Agent Weaver and Lincoln were there. She was on oxygen and an IV, and a machine continuously displayed her vital signs. He glanced at it. Everything was low, but nothing screamed imminent danger. Mack was nowhere to be seen.

Agent Weaver held up two vials of blood. "I'm going to see what answers we can get from this. Stay with her, Lincoln,? Continue the supportive treatments?"

"Of course," Lincoln agreed immediately and Weaver left.

"What do we know?" Andrew asked him.

"She's alive," Lincoln said. "Dehydrated for sure, and seemingly malnourished, though not as much as we'd suspect given the amount of time she's been trapped in there. Vitals are low all around. She has yet to regain consciousness. You were there, can you tell us anything?"

"Actually, I wasn't. When Hunter and I arrived, she was already outside the Monolith. Only Fitz knows, and he's in shock."

"Where's he?"

"Skye and Bobbi are taking care of him. Bobbi has considerable first aid training from her years in the field, Skye's assisting."

"Well, tell Bobbi she's due for an early check by her doctor. We're bringing in reinforcements. Coulson's making the call now."

"And for now?"

"For now, we keep up supportive treatments and see what science can tell us. Agent Weaver is analyzing her blood as we speak. Once Agent Simmons stabilizes a little more, we're going to take a CT, run an EEG, all that."

Andrew turned to look at the frail woman on the bed, the doctor who had become the patient. "And hope for the best." Hope she recovered. Even if she lived, which still wasn't certain, run-ins with alien artifacts rarely ended well. They left scars, both physical and psychological.


	13. Heritage, part 3

_Disclaimer: I JUST BOUGHT MARVEL...no, I lie. I wish._

 _Author's Note: I realize the whole Heritage plotline has been a slow burn (in my defense, there's a lot of other stuff going on, too), but there definitely are surprises down the road. This chapter in particular has some interesting tidbits that will prove monumentally important down the line. Can you guess what they are? Let me know what you think._

* * *

 **Heritage, part 3**

Coulson found May sitting next to Simmons' bedside, reading an old, leather-bound book. In the three days since the Monolith had spit her back out, the young scientist had still not regained consciousness, and the team had been taking turns sitting by her bedside. Fitz was the most often there, after having slept twenty-six hours following her reappearance, but Andrew constantly made him take breaks. Right now, he was with Mack, with the Monolith, trying to see if they could get any results from the probe he illicitly dropped in. There were looking for anything that might help them figure out what happened to Simmons while she was missing, answers that might help them figure out what was wrong now.

"What do you got there?" he asked, motioning toward the book.

"We recovered it from the records at Afterlife. It has a picture of the Monolith sketched into it. But it's also written in Mandarin, which is why I'm here trying to puzzle through it."

"Puzzle?"

"It's an older form, dissimilar enough that it's difficult to read."

"Fitz and Skye might be able to come up with a translation program between them," he offered.

"It's alright. I think Fitz is dealing with enough right now. I'm trying to see if it has any useful information about what happens when a person is pulled into the Monolith specifically, to see if the intel can help Simmons."

"And?"

"Not much. I've found that the author believes that it has the ability to destroy the Inhumans."

"Like Lincoln said."

"Right. Like Lincoln, the author doesn't know how it's supposed to be able to do so. They do seem to think it has some primitive link to the Kree homeworld of Hala."

"Meaning?"

She raised an elegant eyebrow. "The author doesn't say."

"Is it only dangerous to Inhumans, or to all of Earth? And what is its purpose, to destroy them? The Kree made them, after all, so them developing a fail-safe would not be improbable." She gave him a look he recognized well. "The author doesn't say that either, does he?"

"There is a lot of information about the Inhumans in here," she offered, ignoring the obvious question.

"Terrigenesis?"

"Yes."

"Anything to help with our other problem?"

"Possibly. The author researched it very thoroughly, though their information seems incomplete in places. The Kree developed the Inhumans by genetic engineering them, mixing their own DNA with the then-primitive _homo sapiens_. The author believes that, in addition to creating weapons as Vin-Tak told us, they may also have been trying to circumvent their own evolutionary stagnation, hence the mixing of the genetic material."

"So, you're saying, all Inhumans are part Kree?"

"I'm only repeating what the author believes. The evidence is...questionable. The author also believes that the Diviner metal that is so deadly to humans is non-deadly to Inhumans because it recognizes the Kree genetic signature."

"I guess that makes sense, in a way. The Kree would also have to be able to handle the Diviners. Simmons might be able to figure that one out, once she recovers." There was a lull in the conversation as both envisioned a future where Simmons was fit enough to tackle the scientific problem.

"Following the departure of the Kree, the Inhumans began their own society where they experimented with the Terrigen crystals to gain powers. Due to problems that arose, they began" her lips curled slightly "a eugenics program, to maximize ability and minimize casualty."

"Eugenics." Coulson also didn't seem too happy.

"It is the author's belief that some of the mutations we see here on Earth are the result of offspring of people deemed not pure enough for Terrigenesis."

"This is starting to give me a bad taste in my mouth."

May smirked. "You say?"

"Well, you're going to have to take your reading to go. I'm sending you, Skye, and Agent Weaver to be on the ground in New Orleans. Your primary mission is to ascertain whether this is Terrigenesis or in any way related to the Inhumans. Gather any intel you can, especially on the process by which it's occurring. What's the delivery method? Are Jiaying's people involved? I'm holding Lincoln back as a precaution; he wants to go with you, but he's not an agent." He saw agreement in May's eyes, and a question. "Now that Doctor Streiten is here to take care of Simmons, Agent Weaver is no longer needed in that capacity, but she will be valuable scientific support on the mission. I've already informed her and Skye."

"I admit Streiten's appearance surprised me...I thought he went off grid after you accosted him last time."

"Fury never lost him," was Phil's cryptic answer, ignoring the second part of May's question. "I have Hunter on standby if you need a second specialist, and that was hard enough to negotiate. Bobbi needed to help."

"We'll make do."

"You've trained Skye well." She looked at him, a question in her eyes. "Despite a couple of days ago, Andrew says she's field ready." She nodded in agreement, not that she wouldn't be keeping an eye on th younger agent anyway. "Focus your reading on Terrigenesis, if you will. Anything that you found out about this mission will be useful." May nodded. She didn't need Ceoulson to tell her that. "And if Inhumans are involved, try to keep it out of the limelight." That, she had to roll her eyes at. Obviously, she thought. "You're right. You know how this goes."

"When?" was all she said.

"Would an hour be too much to ask?" A raised eyebrow. "I didn't think so." She looked at the still figure on the bed. "I can sit with Simmons." May nodded, and left. She had a mission to prepare for.


	14. Omega-3, part 3

_Disclaimer: Still don't own anything._

 _Author's Note: I'm sorry, but I couldn't deny this little plot bunny once it popped up. You'll know what I mean once you reach the end, and prepare to see much more of it in the next few parts of this plotline. Hope you don't mind..._

* * *

 **Omega-3, part 3**

Flying was ever so peaceful, and if it were up to her, she'd stay in the cockpit of the quinjet until they reached New Orleans. But there were only three of them and they needed to plan what would happen once they hit the ground. So she entered in the coordinates of a small field outside the city, and engaged the autopilot. And took several deep breaths before leaving the cockpit.

"May?" Skye asked, not even bothering to look up from her computer screen, once she caught the vibrations of her mentor's footsteps.

"Hmm?"

"The CDC has apparently traced almost all victims to a single health food store in New Orleans."

"Did you just hack the CDC?" Agent Weaver asked, a disapproving tone clear in her voice.

"How else were we supposed to get information?" Skye asked with an eye roll.

"Agent May, these methods are a little unorthodox, don't you think?"

Ah. The peace of the cockpit. If only...but she answered Agent Weaver. Agent Weaver was, after all, still part of the board, Gonzales' board which hunted Skye. She needed her to be on Skye's good side. "Do you remember when Director Coulson was kidnapped by Centipede and the Clairvoyant?"

"Yes. Agent Hand, from the Hub, handled that investigation. It's not like we at SciTech were completely out of the loop..."

"But Skye's unorthodox methods are what found him."

"Oh."

"And after the Hydra uprising, Skye hacked the NSA so we could see what happened at the Fridge and follow up on the escapees."

"Oh." She paused thoughtfully. "Well, I guess as long as she's monitored and not...unethical about it."

"I know Skye didn't go through the rigorous testing at the Communications Academy. But she is very good at what she does. Coulson and I both trust her to know what's right." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Skye's face turn bright red. She supposed she didn't usually give out compliments.

"I see," Agent Weaver said, with a thoughtful look.

May turned to Skye. "A health food store. Anything else?"

"Nope, well, not really. They've shut the store down and investigators are going through their records to see if they all visited at the same time, or bought the same thing, or if what they bought was bottled at the same plant, or if the victims who don't seem connected to the store might actually be..."

"Well, it's a good starting place for our investigations," May said.

"I don't like to make assumptions, but let's presume that this is Terrigenesis, and see if we can't narrow down the field further," Agent Weaver said. "If all the victims were in the store at the same time as one of the crystals broke, then they were have undergone Terrigenesis in situ. That is clearly not the case. Now, food-bourne...that's an interesting idea, and could explain some of the anomalies we've seen, such as the fact that bystanders are not infected at the same time as the victim. Skye, do you know of anytime the crystals have been ingested?"

"I have no idea. You'd have to ask Lincoln."

"Lincoln, yes, our...Inhuman consultant." Her lip curled slightly, not unnoticed by either May or Skye.

"I've got him on the line," Skye said, and Lincoln's face suddenly filled the screen.

"What's up, Skye?" he asked. "How's it going out there?"

"Well, we haven't gotten there yet," she said. "Agent Weaver has a question for you."

"Okay..."

"Are there any records of the Terrigen crystals being ingested?" she asked crisply.

"No, not to my knowledge. Everybody goes through the Mist. I can't see how you could ingest them without ripping up your insides."

"What if they were ground down, to a powder?"

"The Mist would be released during the process of grinding them, and once activated, it can't be reactivated later. It's kinda of a one-shot thing. That's why Jiaying had our scientists trying to synthesize them."

"Interesting. Thank you for your input, Lincoln," she said, motioning for Skye to cut the connection.

"Wait!" Lincoln called. "Why?"

"We're just bouncing around ideas," Skye told him. "Most of the victims were traced to a health food store, so we're trying to see the possibilities." Agent Weaver gave her a dirty look.

"Well...I suppose if it were possible, and I'm not saying it is, ingesting the Terrigen crystals would probably still trigger Terrigenesis."

"Good to know."

"And it might be localized to the victim in that case," he said, slowly. "I'm just speaking hypothetically here, you know."

"I know, but it helps. Thanks, Lincoln. Anything on the Jemma front?"

"Unchanged."

"I suppose no news is better than bad news. Thanks again."

"Anytime," he said, and she cut the connection.

"Agent Skye, you didn't have authorization to share that information with a consultant..." Agent Weaver began.

"Isn't your whole new model of S.H.I.E.L.D about transparency?"

"Inside the organization, not outside," she said. "But I don't expect you to understand that."

May recognized the look in her student's eyes and broke in before this spiraled out of control. "Skye offering that piece of information to Lincoln allowed her to get more information out of him. Sometimes it's a give and take," she told Agent Weaver, who reluctantly nodded, before turning to her student. "But it's also good to make sure your team is on the same page," she told Skye, who looked like she was about to say something before her full attention was suddenly turned to her computer and she began typing furiously. "What's going on?"

"There's a hacker on the other side of this, and they're good," she muttered.

"What did you do?" Agent Weaver asked.

"Tried to find...something more about...that doctor on TV...Calder," she said. The pauses were odd, May thought. Skye didn't usually have trouble hacking and talking. "Somebody...doesn't want me...digging. Like that'll...stop me. Need...more power though."

"If I disengage the autopilot and manually fly the plane, that should give you a little more, right?" May offered.

"You're supporting this?" Agent Weaver asked increduously.

May raised an eyebrow, tired of repeating herself. "I. Trust. Her."

"Help...yes." May turned to walk back into the cockpit. Ah, the peace of... "Wait!"

She turned. "What?"

"Know anything...about...something called...super secret agency...Warehouse 13?"

May and Agent Weaver exchanged confused looks. "No," they both said. S.H.I.E.L.D was _the_ super secret government agency.

"I'll just concentrate on getting us there," May said, noticing the young hacker was lost in cyberspace and beating a hasty retreat. She disappeared into the cockpit and disengaged the autopilot so Skye could siphon off its processing power. But it was not as peaceful as she'd hoped, as the thought "What the fuck was Warehouse 13?" kept running through her mind.

* * *

 _Author's Note 2: After the inclusion of Dr. Calder earlier, I just couldn't resist. For those of you familiar with Warehouse 13, who will win the hacking battle, Claudia or Skye? And for those of you unfamiliar with it, don't worry. I'll give you enough information so you won't be lost._


	15. The Monolith, part 5

_Disclaimer: No change here._

 _Author's note: Being eaten by the Monolith and spit back out again has long-lasting side effects. We're about to see one of them, and it doesn't end here. Poor Simmons. Life isn't going to get any easier for a while yet. (Also, apologies for any and all medical errors; Dr. Google helped me out here.) We're also going to get a glance of what's going on inside Lincoln's head. Let me know what you think?_

* * *

T **he Monolith, part 5**

Lincoln had lied to Skye on the call. Not about the Inhuman stuff, but about Simmons. He didn't think Skye needed the distraction of worry on her mission, though when she came back and realized he'd lied, he figured she'd be pretty pissed at him. But he made the call and he'd live with the consequences.

Simmons (he had fallen into the habit of almost everybody else of referring to the biochemist by just her last name even though it seemed weird to him) was not unchanged. Her condition had deteriorated in the short time since Skye had left, not that they weren't expecting it given the numbers the various machines she was hooked up to spit out regularly. It would appear that she had developed aplastic anemia.

Without knowing what exactly had happened to her while she was in the Monolith (or even if she was in the Monolith the whole time; some people had some pretty crazy theories there), her physical condition upon exiting had shown she was definitely unwell. Her body was fighting off something, but the tests were vexatious in their inconclusiveness. For one, infection usually led to a high white blood cell count; Simmons' were very low. They'd treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics, which had helped, but the infection was recurring. Also, there were the bruises. Every time someone touched her, they left huge bruises. Mack's sprint to the medical wing had left her body covered with bruises under the thin hospital gown she was now wearing. At first, they'd thought it had something to do with the Monolith, but taking her blood and setting up the IV had left a new set of bruises. Finally, a bone marrow biopsy performed just earlier today had proven Dr. Streiten's suspicion – aplastic anemia. Her bone marrow was not producing blood cells as it ought. Normal people had 30-70% stem cells in their bone marrow. Simmons had less than 15%. Anything less than 25% was classified as 'severe'.

Treatment involved immunosuppressive drugs and corticosteroids, but that was only a stop-gap measure at best. She desperately needed a bone marrow transplant, and soon. They were looking for her family, and testing everyone on the base just in case. The debate about whether or not to move her to a real hospital was also going strong. Her need for that level of care was countered by her exposure to an unknown alien artifact. If he'd gotten to her first, Dr. Streiten would have put her in quarantine immediately, he said. Agent Weaver had agreed, but the sprint through the base to the medical wing had put an end to that idea before it even gotten off the ground. As it was, he wanted to put the entire base under quarantine, and he was pissed with Coulson for letting May, Weaver, and Skye off the base on a mission. So, at the moment, they lived in limbo.

"Dr. Streiten here?" Coulson asked, sticking his head into the room where Lincoln was sitting with the still-unconscious Simmons.

"He's in the lab, running tests on the cheek swabs," Lincoln replied.

"Good, he better continue," Coulson said.

"Is something wrong? Were you not able to contact Simmons' family for a potential donor?"

"No, I found out I didn't need to, and good thing too, because I don't think I could have kept them from seeing her. It turns out, Simmons was adopted as a baby. There were some inconsistencies in her file...I won't bother you with the details, but I ended up tracing her real birth certificate. Her birthmother died when she was young, and no father was listed. And the trail ended there."

"Skye could probably find out more."

"I know. But I need her where she is right now."

"There's a bone marrow registry," he offered helpfully.

"Yes, that's a chance. Dr. Streiten, I know, will know how to access it," he said, and left.

Lincoln settled back into his chair. From Coulson's comment, it was clear that whoever Simmons' family was, they loved her dearly. If it were his call, he'd let them see their daughter. But he didn't have the first idea of how to get a hold of them, or how to even call out of the base. Not for the first time, he wondered if this wasn't just a gilded cage. If he tried to leave, would they let him? Gordon could've gotten him out, but Gordon was dead. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. He'd never had a problem with the man, but he had actively participated in Jiaying's attempt to massacre all of S.H.I.E.L.D. And if it hadn't been for Coulson, he might have succeeded even where Jiaying had failed.

He groaned and dropped his head to his hands. Why the hell couldn't things be a little more black and white? Gray was okay, but he felt like he was drowning in it, not knowing where to turn. And then there was Skye. He could feel like he trusted her, and she trusted these people. She was his light in this grayness. Not that his feelings for her weren't a bit gray. She was, after all, allied with the people he'd been taught to fear his entire Inhuman life. But her mother had been his leader, and now she could take her mother's place. Raina had seen it. He'd overheard that conversation, though he never told her that. When it finally came down to it in that aircraft carrier, when he had to choose, he'd chosen her over her mother. Despite everything her mother had done for him in the past, he'd chosen the future. And not just because he was beginning to think he liked her as more than just a friend. It was because Raina's words to her kept passing through his mind - "Your mother isn't leading our people; she's misleading them. It's you who are destined to lead. Even in the darkness, you'll see the truth." And when he had confronted her in the aircraft carrier, and Skye had brought Raina's visions to her defense, he saw the truth. He allied himself with her, not with S.H.I.E.L.D, with Skye.

"You alright?" Coulson was back.

"Sorry?"

"I heard someone groan. It sounded like it came from here."

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Things are just a little...complicated right now. With everything."

"Yeah, I get that."

"Find Dr. Streiten?"

"He found me," Dr. Streiten said, entering the room behind Coulson.

"Any luck with the donor?"

"Surprisingly, yes. After his cheek swab proved him a potential donor, I ran further tests. Agent Fitz is an excellent match on all six HLA genes. If he's willing, I'm confident his stem cells could indeed save Agent Simmons' life."

"He'll be willing," Coulson said, with a grin. He knew his agents well.

"It does appear that way, given his reaction when I told him he was a potential match," Dr. Streiten admitted.

"I thought unrelated donors don't usually have a close degree of HLA matching?" Lincoln asked.

"They usually don't," Dr. Streiten said. "We may just have gotten lucky." He said something else, under his breath, and Lincoln thought it sounded something like, " _It may have been more than just luck._ "


	16. Omega-3, part 4

_Disclaimer: Still don't own Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Or Warehouse 13, for that matter. Just saying._

 _Author's Note: Sorry about the delayed update; it's finals week for me and my physics final was yesterday. And I wanted to make this one good. Hopefully this makes up for it. (It's the longest one to date, too, twice the length of some of the shorter chapters.) It picks up pretty much where the previous installment of this plotline ended_

* * *

 **Omega-3, part 4**

May landed them in a field just outside the city. With their cloaking technology, the quinjet should remain unnoticed, and the field was isolated enough that it should also remain undisturbed. That was the problem with city 'parking'. It doesn't do much good to be invisible if people are going to bump into you. Hence, the field, even though it meant they had to ride into town on the two motorcycles that were currently taking up a lot of space in the hold.

"Time to go," she told agents Skye and Weaver. Agent Weaver got up from where she was glaring at Skye, but Skye didn't seem to notice, still typing away. "You ready?"

Agent Weaver walked back over and shook Skye's shoulder. May wanted to put her head in her hand and groan. Or hit the other woman upside the head. This was not going to end well. "When your superior officer tells you..." Weaver started.

Skye flinched away, moving her hands up to block away a hit that wasn't coming and push the hand off her shoulder. She seemed to realize what was going on an instant later, and turned back to the screen. "DAMMIT!"" she yelled.

"What?"

"I lost the hack. Now they're in our systems," she said, and resumed her furious typing.

"Agent Skye," Weaver started.

"May I speak to you over here?" May asked her, politely enough but the tone of her voice dared Weaver to refuse. Weaver came over to her.

"You said it was time to go. She disobeyed an order. And then she looked like she was going to attack me!"

May kept her voice down, hoping the other would take the hint. "I also asked if she was ready. She was involved in something, it was mission-related, and now we have a security breach. I don't run a dictatorship in my missions unless absolutely necessary, and that's only if lives are on the line. I know it's been a while since you've been in the field, and we've never worked together before, so I thought you should know."

"Fine," Weaver said, with a huff. "But she looked like she was going to turn her...powers on me."

May sighed. How did she get herself into this situation? "I realize Skye's powers seem to you to be an unknown variable, but even though she was startled, nothing shook. She has control over them, and I think she's more likely to use an ICER on someone than her powers at this point." She paused. "Are we done here, or is this going to continue to be a problem?"

Agent Weaver's eyes narrowed at May's tone, but she nodded. "We're done."

"And so am I," Skye said. "For now."

"Security breach?"

"I locked them out. Had to close down my only path in, but our systems are secure. For now. This hacker, they're good enough to get in again, and now that we're on their radar...well, I would try to get in again in their spot."

"Fair enough. So we find the threat," May said, adding that to their mission parameters. "Skye, you good on a bike by yourself?"

"Yeah, I'm good." She packed her laptop into the mission equipment already prepped on the bike.

"Good. Agent Weaver, you're with me. We'll take the lead, Skye follow close behind. Our destination is that health food store..." she trailed off.

"New Orleans Food Co-op," Skye supplied. "Beyond the information the CDC...provided us, it does seem to be geographically at about the center of all this."

"So it's our best shot," Agent Weaver said.

"Cloaking activated," May said, and they sped off towards the city, feeling the wind in their faces and enjoying the sensation of freedom. Or, at least, May and Skye were. Agent Weaver was concentrating on reducing her nausea. Motorcycles weren't really her thing.

They hit the city. May seemed to know where she was going, so Skye just followed. Finally, the two motorcycles pulled up to the curb. The building was taped off, surrounded by trucks and police cars and plastic tents. There were people in plastic suits walking around. They drove around to the back alley, for cover. "So, what now?" Skye asked.

"Now, we infiltrate," May said.

"Okay, how?"

"Not important," a male voice interrupted. The three women turned. A broad-shouldered man with close-cut dark blond hair was holding a gun on them. May reached for her ICER. "I wouldn't," the man said.

"Who are you?" May asked.

"Agent Jinks, ATF. But why are you asking the questions? I should be asking the questions. Who are you, and why are trying to infiltrate my crime scene?"

"Is there a bomb inside?" Skye asked. "Why else would the ATF be involved?"

"Skye..." May said warningly.

"Again with the questions. Who are you?"

"FBI," May said.

"Lie," Agent Jinks said.

The women looked at each. "We're investigating this outbreak as a matter of national security," Agent Weaver told him.

"Truth," he said, and looked a little confused. "Then we appear to be on the same side." He lowered his weapon slightly, but it was still trained on them.

"Jinksy," a new voice called us. "Artie wants us...shit." A redhead entered the scene, and May drew on her.

Jinks' gun went back up. "Lower your weapon," he commanded.

"You first," May offered. Neither did. "Skye?" May prompted.

Skye raised her empty hands, and Agent Jinks' weapon began shaking and twitching in his hands. "What the.." he said, as it flew out of his hands towards Skye, hitting the ground between them.

She lunged forward and picked it up. "It's hot," she commented. "And weird as hell."

"My turn," May said. "Who are you?"

"I bet they're Warehouse 13," Skye commented. They all turned to look at her. "Makes sense. They were trying to get into our systems earlier, so they must have an interest in the case." She shrugged.

The redhead turned to look at her. "You were trying to get into our systems."

Skye shrugged. "Intel. Was that you on the other end?"

"Claudia Donovan. Field agent and hacker extraordinaire."

"Skye." She paused. "Same."

"That backdoor..."

"Interrupting this little get-together while you're both still speaking English," Jinks said, "we still have yet to figure out what is going on here."

"Jinksy," Claudia said, "they're S.H.I.E.L.D. You know, that secret government agency which became not so secret after aliens attacked New York and then presumably got disbanded and..." she turned to Skye "aren't you guys on the terrorist list right about now?"

"Misunderstanding," Skye said. "We had a bit of a rot problem."

Claudia looked at Jinks. "Understatement, but true," he asserted

"That's a problem with big organizations," Claudia said.

"So, your friend can lower her weapon then," Jinks suggested. "We're on the same side."

"May," Skye prompted.

May lowered her gun. "You know who we are. But who are you?"

"We're Warehouse 13," he said. "Just like your agent said. Ridding the world of problems."

"What kind of problems?"

Jinks looked like he was about to say something, but Claudia cut in. "Artifacts. And I bet you know what I mean by that. Except we don't deal too much with the alien ones."

"Non-alien artifacts?" Weaver wondered aloud.

"Scientist," Skye explained.

Claudia nodded. "So, to cut to the chase, we think it's our kind of artifact, you think it's your's, and the CDC thinks it's a disease outbreak. But whatever it is, we all want it to go away."

"Dr. Calder's one of your's?" May asked.

"In a matter of speaking," Claudia said.

"So, we're working together?" Skye asked.

The five agents exchanged looks. "We have to talk to Artie," Jinks said. "But I guess." He led them towards the building.

"Cool." Skye said, turning to Claudia. "So explain this," she said, motioning toward the gun.

"Can I have it back?"

Skye turned to May, who nodded imperceptibly. "Here."

"We call it a Tesla. Works kinda like a taser. Directed pulse of electricity that results in temporary unconsciousness and short-term memory loss."

"Useful," Skye said, pulling out her ICER. "Our version. Delivers a dendrotoxin – a nerve toxin – that also results in temporary unconsciousness. And an ignorance of time passing. Gives a terrible headache too."

"Why is it that the 'secret' government agencies," Claudia asked, using air quotes around the word _secret_ , "have the cool, non-lethal weapons?"

"Because we're awesome," Skye answered.

"Can I have my Tesla back?" Jinks groused.

"Well, you were disarmed," Claudia told him with a smirk, keeping the weapon. "How'd you manage that?" she asked Skye.

"Oh, you know. How can he tell when people are lying?"

"It's his superpower." Skye saw May and Agent Weaver exchange looks, and could guess what they were thinking. Did these Warehouse 13 people also collect powered people? Did he need to be Indexed?

"Well, this is mine," she answered Claudia, flippantly.

"Sure." The other agent looked unconvinced. "So about that hack..."

"You'll all have to put on suits," Jinks told them, reaching for one himself.

Skye and Claudia shared a conspiratorial grin. "Don't worry. We'll talk tech eventually," Claudia reassured her with a smile.

* * *

 _Author's Note 2: I just figured Claudia and Skye would hit it off immediately and override some of the awkwardness that meeting would have had otherwise. They are, after all, both young, awesome, female, techie, BAMF field agents with less-than-ideal childhoods in secret organizations dedicated to protecting the world against weird stuff..._


	17. The Monolith, part 6

_Disclaimer: Don't own it._

 _Author's Note: And back to the Playground we go. Some of you have probably foreseen this. (Fitz, however, did not.) Some of you will probably hate me for this. I'm sorry :( But I can't deny my muse and it does what it wants. Love it or hate it, let me know what you think?_

* * *

 **The Monolith, part 6**

Of course he was willing. Did they even have to ask? He was willing to do a lot more to save Simmons than the two days of growth factor shots and then the hours of sitting here attached to this machine. Dr. Streiten had been surprised that his cells were mobilized in two days; it usually took four or more. Fitz knew better. He'd upped the dosage on his own, screw side effects. Simmons needed help now! He could live with the mild flu-like symptoms just so long as they didn't keep him from donating. They were supposed to go away once the harvest was done anyway.

There wasn't much he could do other than think right now. He had an IV in both arms, one taking blood from a vein, and the other giving back all but the stem cells which were filtered off. It was called an apheresis machine, and he itched to take it apart and see how it worked. Coulson had found it in a S.H.I.E.L.D medical facility that had shut down after the Hydra uprising and they'd brought it to the Playground just yesterday. It wasn't the only medical equipment brought in either; they had enough to start their own hospital, it seemed, and from how things were going lately, that was a good thing. Some of it had been damaged, but he could fix it. Finally, something he could fix.

Damn, but he was bored right now. He'd been hooked up five hours already, and the process could take up to eight, Dr. Streiten told him. They were trying to finish the harvest in a day, but it was going to be a long one for him. Mack had set him up a TV, but he'd never been one for watching a lot of TV, even Dr. Who reruns. He'd had visitors – Hunter, Bobbi, Mack, Lincoln, and Coulson – but everyone was preoccupied and he wasn't very good at small talk at the best of times. Mack, he could talk to normally, but after everything that had happened, things still weren't the same between them. And Mack couldn't admit that the probe he illicitly dropped in the container were giving them some of the best readings they had, even though none of it meant anything yet.

Dr. Streiten was conspicuously missing. He set up the machine, and checked it once very briefly about an hour ago, but otherwise, Fitz hadn't seen the doctor all day. He was worried it was because Simmons was getting worse and required all his attention, but from what Lincoln said, that wasn't the case. According to Lincoln, Dr. Streiten was in the lab, running "tests". And no, he didn't have any more information than that. Nor did the other man seem to care. All he wanted to do was ask Fitz questions about Skye, and worry about them out in the field, and find out what Fitz thought was happening out there. And, to be truthful, he didn't seem to care too much about what Fitz actually said. Fitz couldn't figure it out, and he was a little relieved when Lincoln left. He was glad for the care he was giving Simmons, and for the help he'd been with Coulson, but he couldn't figure the other man out. This is why he liked science! So clean. His fingers positively ached to pick something up and tinker with it. Instead, he grabbed the remote and toggled on a new episode of Dr. Who. It was better than his thoughts.

Four episodes and two hours later, he turned it off. He loved Dr. Who, he did – what Scottish geek didn't? – but he could not marathon watch television shows without his brain feeling like it was turning to mush. He had no idea how people like Skye did it. That girl could spend all day in front of Netflix. Granted, she didn't do it very often, but still.

Dr. Streiten walked in the room. "How are you doing, Fitz?" he asked.

"Good, fine, okay bored, but good. How are my stem cells?"

Dr. Streiten looked over the display on the machine. "We're almost there. I'd say you've got another hour. You're doing remarkably well." He paused. "Fitz, I've been examining your blood every day. I know you're taking more than the 10mcg/kg/day dosage of G-CSF." Fitz looked down at his hands. "And I've been allowing it and monitoring you closely. I would have acted if you were in danger. I know you want to save your...Agent Simmons, but as a doctor, I can't let you risk yourself."

"Autologous donors take as much as four times that amount. I only doubled it," Fitz admitted. It looked like his secret hadn't been much of a secret.

"I'm glad you did your research."

"Of course." Really. Did he think he wouldn't? "Are you going to be able to use it for Simmons today?"

"Yes. The cells are best used fresh. And I have prepped Agent Simmons with all the necessary treatments as well."

"To minimize risk of graft-vs-host?"

"Yes, precisely."

"I read graft-vs-host is more likely in matched unrelated donors than matched related donors."

"I'm not too worried about that."

"Why?"

"Agent Fitz–" he started.

"Fitz, I told you, just Fitz."

"Fitz," he started again, and paused for a long moment. "What is the nature of your relationship with Agent Simmons?"

"What do you mean? We're colleagues, friends, research partners, we're Fitzsimmons."

"I don't mean to pry, but I was hearing rumors about...a date?"

"Oh, that." He looked down at his hands. "Well, first, when we were going to die under the sea, I told her I liked her. But she didn't feel the same. Then right before the Inhuman war, she started acting like maybe her feelings had changed, but then I wasn't sure. And then a little while later I invited her to dinner so that maybe we could talk about it and figure it out and then she got eaten by the rock and now she's sick and I guess I don't really know what's going on with us but I know I do want her to get well because she's Simmons..." he rambled on but Dr. Streiten stopped him.

"Okay, that's what I needed to know."

"Sorry, sir?"

"This is not normally my job description," he said softly, and then continued, louder. "I've been running tests."

"I know. To see if my blood's a match to Simmon's. And to see what's going on with her."

"Yes, but there was...an anomaly. So I ran some genetic tests as well."

"An anomaly?"

"It's not unheard of, but it's not common either to find a matched unrelated donor on all HLA genes. To find one in the limited number of inhabitants of the same secret underground bunker...that's pushing reasonable probability."

"I'm not quite sure what it is you're saying."

"Fitz, you and Agent Simmons...you're genetically related."

Fitz looked like someone hit him with an ICER. "That's...not possible, is it?" he said, finally.

"It's...more than possible. It's fact."

"How?"

He wasn't quite sure of what Fitz meant by that question, but he could answer one possibility. "From your genetic profiles, it looks like the two of you are full siblings."

"I'm an only child," he said. "My mother only had me. And Simmons, she has a lot of brothers, but I'm not one of them." He paused. "And our birthdays are twenty-three days apart. In the same year. That's not possible, biologically."

"Fitz, I can't tell you how it happened or why. I can only tell you the science. And the science says that you two are genetically full siblings." He paused. "I can't imagine what's going through your head right now, but on a positive note, your stems cells are less likely to give your _sister_ graft-vs-host disease then if you were unrelated."

"Simmons is my...sister," Fitz said.

"I'll leave you alone to process that," Dr. Streiten said, getting up from his seat and heading for the door of the treatment room. "I'll be by in, oh, a little under an hour to unhook you from the machine."

"Simmons is my sister." He paused. "Simmons is my sister." Nope, still sounded weird.


	18. Omega-3, part 5

_Disclaimer: Yeah, not mine._

 _Author's Note: The CDC and Warehouse 13 are fast workers. And with so few agents available for S.H.I.E.L.D., I figured they could use the help. And I wanted to move this along. Expect a part 6 (possibly a part 7) but we're starting to wrap this little plotline up. Let me know what you think?_

* * *

 **Omega-3, part 5**

"What is this?" a short, frumpy man angrily demanded. "Claudia, Jinks, who are these people and why have you brought them here? This is a violation of Warehouse protocol..."

"Relax, Artie," Claudia told him. "We vetted them. They're S.H.I.E.L.D. They think this may be one of their's."

"We don't work with other agencies. How much do they know?" he asked, fumbling with something in his bag.

"No, Artie, we're not erasing their memories. Let's be honest, we don't know what's going on. They could help."

"Erase our memories?" Skye whispered to May. "Do you think they can?"

"I don't want to find out," May replied.

"Artie, is there a problem?" a tall blond woman in a lab coat asked. They recognized her from the news report.

"Claudia and Jinks have brought in outsiders," he fussed.

"I'm Agent May," May said, stepping forward. "This is Agent Weaver, scientist, and Agent Skye, communications. We are also investigating this outbreak."

"You're a scientist, Agent Weaver?" Dr. Calder clarified.

"Yes, I am," Agent Weaver responded.

"Then perhaps you'd like to take a look at this?" she said, motioning towards a piece of equipment nearby.

"What do you have?" Agent Weaver asked, walking towards Dr. Calder

"Our investigators discovered that all the cases were linked to their particular brand of fish oil capsules. The subjects either bought a bottle themselves, or someone gave it to them. We have confiscated all bottles and are tracking down ones that were sold and other places that might have gotten deliveries. It would appear that, for some reason, this was the only store to have gotten a recent shipment from the manufacturer, so that's providential. The manufacturer knows to stop delivery until we tell them further. I have a sample here. It's...different, which is also why we believe the fish oil to be the cause, not just a coincidence. Perhaps you might be able to identify it?"

"I..what...I," Artie sputtered, and Skye watched Claudia move over to him and take him aside. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but the angry bear seemed to be calming down.

"Agent May, would you come here?" Agent Weaver asked, having examined the sample. May walked over to her, Skye following. "It is as we expected," she told May, ignoring Skye. "The biochemical signature is the same as from the sample we have back at base." May nodded.

"So this is one of your's," Claudia said. Skye had felt the vibrations through the floor as the other hacker and senior agent had joined them, so her interruption came as no surprise.

"Yes," she told her.

"We can take it from here," Agent Weaver announced. "Thank you for your assistance."

"Not so fast," the man they called Artie said.

"Excuse me?" Agent Weaver responded.

"This is our investigation. We got here first."

"Are we really having a pissing match here?" Skye said, under her breath.

"Skye," May scolded lightly.

"It's true. We're not going to get rid of them unless we give them something," she insisted.

"I need to make a call to our director," May said. "If you'll excuse me..." she walked a little ways off. The two agencies stood there at an impasse, staring at each other. Or at least, the older agents did. Claudia and Skye communicated through looks, rolled eyes, and awkward faces. Neither was a particular fan of bureaucracy, and they had found in the other a kindred spirit.

"We call it Terrigenesis," May announced finally, walking back. "A video of a man being infected ignited our investigations, which brought us here, where we encountered you."

"But how do you know it's this, what did you call it, Terrigenesis?" Claudia asked.

"The name isn't important," Agent Weaver dissembled, but that didn't seem to satisfy them.

Skye finally answered. "Because I saw it happen. Before. That time, it was airborne and it killed one of our agents. It looked just like this, the stone, everything."

Agent Weaver interrupted. "And, as I said, the biochemical signature is the same from the samples we retrieved earlier."

"Then how did it get into the fish oil if it was airborne? Who put it there? Did it mutate?" Artie demanded.

A pit in her stomach opened up and Skye realized with blinding clarity that she did. The memory flashed in front of her eyes. In dumping the quinjet overboard, she put it there. "I..." she started, but May quickly interrupted.

"We believe some of it was lost at sea during...transport to our secure facility. It must have infected the fish." She turned to look at Agent Weaver.

"If it were soluble in water, then yes, that's indeed possible."

"Okay, so, ocean. Do we tell the world to stop eating fish?" Artie demanded

"It's likely its potency would only be strong enough in short range, effecting only the nearby aquatic life."

"But you don't know," Artie said with a frown.

"I assure you, our best scientists will be on it," Agent Weaver replied.

"I think we should take it," he announced.

"Absolutely not."

"Why not? It's clear it's not safe in your hands."

"Alien artifact," Skye said, motioning towards herself and her team. "Non-alien artifact," she added, motioning to the Warehouse agents.

"Well, I..." Artie sputtered. "Van...Dr. Calder, what do you have to say?"

She hummed. "Well, it's clear it needs to be studied," she temporized. "It's fatal to some, and not to others, and you have yet to explain why, if you know. The fish oil is confiscated, but we don't know if other marine life that might later be eaten were infected."

"We will figure out all of that," Agent Weaver assured her. "We were...in the process of studying it when it...disappeared."

"You lost it once," Artie reminded her.

"Uh, guys," Agent Jinks interrupted. They all turned to look at him. "Where is it?" he asked.

"Where's what?" Artie asked him.

"The fish oil. All the bottles were confiscated. They're gone."

"What did you do?" Artie said, turning on them angrily.

"We did nothing," May said.

"Truth," Jinks announced. And it was true. They did nothing. Hunter and Coulson might have gotten a little tired with the interagency game-playing however. And he had Hunter already on the ground nearby. And just maybe, May knew something about that. But given the human lie-detector on the other team, she made sure they kept it from her, and from them all.

"We'll retrieve it," she assured them. "And make sure nothing happens to it."

"It's clear you can't be trusted not to lose it either," Agent Weaver said with a smirk.

"Hey!" Artie called. "That..."

"Maybe the CDC...?" Dr. Calder began.

"No," both Agent Weaver and Artie said together.

"So, Skye, now that we've solved this little health crisis, you want to get a drink with me and we can share hacking stories?" Claudia offered, before her boss gave himself a heart attack.

"That would be great," Skye said. She turned to May, "You won't need me for a little while, right?" she asked.

"Keep it short," May told her, and watched as the two young women walked off arm-in-arm. She couldn't understand a word of their conversation, but she was glad Skye found someone who spoke her language.

"Agent May..." Agent Weaver started.

"Not now," May said. "Everyone deserves a little break sometimes. We can handle this for the time being." And she saw the look in Skye's eyes as the younger agent realized that her actions had unwittingly caused this entire mess. Skye had added red to her ledger that night, or at least, she would see it that way. And that, that could break Skye, unless May could convince her otherwise. So she put Agent Weaver to talking with Dr. Calder about the science stuff, and shadowed the young hackers to the bar Claudia took them too. She remained unnoticed, out of sight, but a watchful presence nonetheless, to step in if the alcohol loosened Skye's inhibitions too much and she said something she shouldn't. Or if it became too much for her and she started to break down, May could get her out of there. But Claudia seemed to be a good distraction for Skye, who limited herself to one beer, and talked tech for over three hours in a seemingly good mood before calling it a night and heading back to the motel May had texted her about. The quinjet, unlike the Bus, was not a comfortable place to sleep and they still had to track down the survivors of the Terrigenesis process. And figure out how to keep it under wraps. There would definitely be questions, of the manufacturer, of the CDC, possibly more. Dr. Calder might be useful there, if she were willing to work with them. It would appear she had experience in the art of...dissembling.

She started to regret the decision to stay at a motel when the bed Skye was sleeping on in their shared room began to tremble. So May stayed awake and watchful all night long. She could go longer than single night without sleep, and Skye needed it. Andrew had taught her the importance of sleep and dreaming for processing your experiences and emotions. So she would give that to Skye tonight, for as long as she could, for as long as Skye didn't start to bring the whole motel down. But it was only the bed that shook, and so lightly that it seemed no one outside the room noticed. And, in that, she felt pride in her student's control.


	19. Family, part 1

_Disclaimer: Nope. Still don't own it._

 _Author's Note: This follows pretty closely along the end of the last Monolith installment chronologically, but I'm now splitting this part of it into its own plotline, as it was veering fairly off-topic of the Monolith and what happened there recently. So, welcome to first installment of "Family". Some questions will be answered, and more will be asked. And, as a special treat, it's pretty long compared to most of the others, but there just wasn't a good stopping point midway. (My original aim was about 1000 words a chapter, so this is about 2.5 chapters.) Let me know what you think?_

* * *

 **Family, part 1**

The stem cell treatment was working. Dr. Streiten had warned them that the first few weeks would be the worst, as Simmons would have basically no functional cells, which meant no immunity and no clotting. And that it usually took two to ix weeks for her blood counts to show signs of the graft taking. But, like all things, in this crazy world, it didn't happen quite like that. It hadn't been a week yet, but Simmons, though she hadn't woken up yet, was already showing vast improvement with none of the side effects that were common. Her body had accepted Fitz's cells immediately and her blood counts were rising to normal levels daily. The infection she seemed to be fighting off from when she got back was gone, she stopped bruising so easily, and everything was just going well. Not that Fitz was there to see it. He had to make do with frequent updates from the team members at the Playground as he was in Scotland.

He flashed back to a few days previous.

 _Simmons is my sister. The phrase repeated itself over and over again in his head. But it's impossible, the other part of his brain argued. Our birthdays are twenty-three days apart. He clung to that fact. Gestation lasted about forty weeks. Twins were born on the same day, or nearby if one was born in the late evening and the other in the morning, not twenty-three days apart. He knew Simmons was adopted, as did she; she'd told him so in the Academy and also said that she didn't care. Her family was her family, blood or not. But he didn't think he was, was he? So he called up the only person who was likely to know._

" _Hello?" His mother's voice answered. She sounded older, and more tired, and he immediately felt guilty for not calling more often._

" _Hi Mum," he said._

" _Leo? Is that really you?"_

" _Yes, it's me. Sorry I haven't called for a while. Been busy with work and all."_

" _Oh, I'm sure. Tell me all about it. Are you working on any funny projects? Meet any new people? How's Simmons?"_

" _Simmons is sick right now, Mum," he said._

" _I'm so sorry, Leo," she said, the concern in her voice very real. She had met Simmons once, and the two had instantly gotten along. And she knew what Simmons meant to him. "Is she going to be alright? What's wrong?" He could hear the nurse in his mother starting to enter the conversation._

" _It's looking a lot better now," he said. He didn't think he was allowed to tell her the details, not that he even knew how to explain them._

" _That's a relief. But it must be so stressful for you, baby."_

 _He had no idea how to bring this up, but it had to be soon because he was starting to lose his nerve. "Mum?"_

" _Yes, Leo?"_

" _Could it be possible...?"_

" _Yes?"_

" _Could I possibly have a sibling?"_

 _There was a pregnant pause. "Leo, I'm not intending on having another baby..."_

 _He blushed, thankful she couldn't see him. "That's not what I meant. I mean, a sibling around my own age..."_

" _Leo, where's this coming from?"_

" _When Simmons was sick, they ran some tests. And on the tests, it said that she and I were...related. But that's impossible, right?"_

 _Another pregnant pause. "I never thought...I mean, it makes sense...all the studies show..."_

 _He interrupted, though he knew it was rude. "Mum, it's impossible, right?"_

" _Leo, this...this...this really isn't a conversation we should have over the phone. Why don't you fly out for a visit? We can talk about this. Surely you have plenty of vacation time. Or is Simmons too sick too leave?"_

" _She's doing better," he replied automatically, but then realized what his mum had said. Or rather, what she hadn't said. "It's not impossible, is it?" he asked._

" _Leo, I told you, I'm not having this conversation over the phone." She sounded firm._

 _He ran his fingers through his hair. "Let me talk to my boss. And Simmons must be stable. If I can, I'll take a leave of absence. But if not, we are going to have this conversation one way or the other."_

" _I can live with that."_

" _I'll call you later, once everything is sorted...or not," he said._

" _Alright. Bye, Leo. Take care of yourself. Give my love to Simmons, will you?"_

" _Yes, Mum. Bye."_

 _Coulson had been very understanding when he told him about his mother wanting a visit. He didn't mention what Dr. Streiten had told him – he hadn't told anyone – but something in Coulson's eyes and the tone of his voice made it seem like he might already know...something. The only person he might feel like telling, other than Simmons of course, was Skye, but she was still out in the field. He waited a few days, to make sure Simmons was really and truly stable, and took a commercial flight to Glasgow under a brand new identity since Skye had erased his old one. He felt bad leaving her, really bad, but he justified it to himself by telling himself that they really needed the truth. (And, yes, maybe he was still a little upset that she left him when he was recovering from almost dying in the ocean. And she had gone on a long undercover assignment, too. He'd be gone a few days at best.)_

And that was how he ended up here, sipping a cup of tea in the kitchen of his childhood home, watching his mother as she busied herself cleaning up a mess that didn't exist.

"Mum..." he started.

"Leo. Have I told you how great it is to see you?"

"Only about a dozen times," he said with a small smile.

"Well, prepare to hear it at least a dozen more. You haven't been home in ages."

The guilt was back. "I know, Mum. I'm sorry, really I am. Things have just been hectic at work lately. Lots of stuff going on."

"Is it still challenging you? You always needed to be challenged."

"Well, I'm certainly not bored, so yes, it is." He knew what she was doing. "Sit down, Mum. We need to talk." He saw the look in her eyes as she realized there was no way to deflect this conversation any longer.

"I hoped we'd never have this conversation," she told him honestly. "Please, just hear me out and don't be mad."

"I could never be mad at you, Mum," he reassured her. "But I need the truth."

"You have to understand, it was a long time ago. You were very young, barely two years old, and you'd lost so much already. I tried, I really did," she said, looking out into the distance. "I wanted you to remember, but you were inconsolable. A colleague of mine, at the hospital, a child psychologist, he suggested it might be better if you were just to forget. A child's mind is so very malleable, he told me, especially at such a tender age. Memories were barely formed. You could remake the memories, overwrite them. He worked with you, and slowly, you became a happy baby again. You called me mummy, and you flew past all your milestones. And he told me that you must never remember, or else it could do some permanent damage to your psyche. And I believed him."

She paused, and when she didn't seem to be moving forward, he gently interjected, "I'm not following, exactly. What happened before I was two?"

She sighed. "I'm not really your mother." That simple sentence seemed to suck the life out of her, and he reached over to hug her.

"Yes, you are. You're telling me I'm adopted, aren't you? Well, I don't care. You're the only mum I know, and you're a good one." She clung to him, and he could feel the shoulder of his jumper starting to get a little damp. She was crying, and he felt miserable for being the cause of it.

"I was your mother's – your birthmother's – best friend. I was there when you were born, but I wasn't there when she needed me later."

"What do you mean?"

"She died. There was a car accident, before your second birthday. I...I traveled a lot back then, using my nursing skills in third world countries. I thought that was my calling in life. It...it took a while for the news to reach me. You were placed in care. I came back as soon as I could and I claimed you. I adopted you, and I wanted you to remember her, I really really did, but you were just so upset and Dr. MacLeod said..." she trailed off.

"I don't blame you," he told her. "I'm sure you did the best you could at the time. But you still haven't answered my original question. Could I have...could Simmons really be my sister?"

"You had a sister, a twin sister. Her name was Ariella. She called you Leo and Lela, but both of you were named after lions. Your mother thought it would make you strong. Her name, in Hebrew, meant 'lion of God'. You know your own."

"Brave as a lion," he replied automatically. "You've told me often enough. But a twin...Ariella..."

"You two were so close as babies. If your mother lifted one of you up, the other would start screaming. You couldn't be separated. I don't know if that was the reason you were so inconsolable when you came to live with me, if it would have been better if you had each other."

"What happened to...Ariella?"

"I told you, I wasn't able to get back straight away. She was adopted out, to a family with boys who wanted a girl. I tried to get her back, but I failed you both. I'm so sorry." She bent her head back to his shoulder and started crying again. He held her, feeling the moisture welling up in his own eyes.

"Do you know...the name of the family?"

"They would never tell me."

"So, it could be Simmons?"

"I suppose. I mean, there was always something between the two of you..."

"The doctor treating her, he said his tests showed that we were biologically full siblings."

"Then it must be true. Oh Leo, I can't believe you found each other. That you found your twin. I know it must come as such a shock, but I'm happy for you. It's what I always secretly wanted."

"Then why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Dr. MacLeod warned me not to. He said it would irreparably–"

"Damage my psyche, I know."

"Twins weren't meant to be alone, he said. But you two found each other anyway."

Something occurred to him then. "You said our birthmother died. But, what about our birthfather?"

"Honestly, I never knew him. Your mother never even gave me his name. They meant while she was doing her university studies and he was – a guest lecturer, I think. She loved him, deeply, but he left. I don't think she ever told him she was pregnant."

"What about my birth certificate? Does it say?"

"I have your original, actually." She got up and went to another room, and he could hear drawers opening and papers shifting before she came back. "Here," she said, handing it to him.

 _Leopold Edward Alexander_ , he read. _Mother: Sarah Jane Alexander. Father: Unknown. Date of birth: August 19, 1987._

"Alexander?" he asked. "But, that's my middle name!"

"Your mother's last name. It was my intention to let you keep your full name, but Dr. MacLeod said it would bring up too many questions so on your new birth certificate, after your adoption was finalized, I gave you my name as your last name but I wanted you to have something to tie to her. I hope...you don't mind."

"I'm Fitz," he said, embracing his identity. "I always will be. A piece of paper doesn't change that," he informed her. "I just...I don't think I can think of myself as an Alexander. And this says I was born in London!"

"Yes, you were. That's where your mother was studying. I never understood what was wrong with someplace more local, but that's where she wanted to be, I guess."

"Sarah. Her name was Sarah."

"Yes."

"Do you...do you have a picture?"

She handed him another piece of paper. "I thought you might ask. I held onto all the old things, just in case." He looked down on the picture in his hand. A young woman with brown hair and dark eyes smiled down at the two babies she held cradled in her arms. "That's you, on the right," his mum said. "And Ariella, on the left."

"They must have changed her name. And her birthday," he mused.

"When is...Simmons' birthday?"

"September 11, 1987."

"Oh,"

"Oh, what oh?"

"I just, I remember that day, is all. September 11, 1989, that is. It's the day you and Ariella were separated in care. September 10 was the last day I could get any information about her."

"So, her new family, they made the day we were separated her birthday? Why would they do that?"

"I don't think they were thinking about that, Leo. I think they were thinking about it as the day they brought her into their family."

"Oh. That makes more sense, I guess." There was a long silence between them.

"Are you furious with me?" she asked finally.

"No, Mum. Never. I told you, you're my mum. You always will be. But thank you for finally telling me the truth."

"You're welcome, baby." She paused. "Now that you've got the information you came for, are you going to leave right away?"

"I may have gotten the information, but I didn't get all I came for. As you said, it's been a while since I've visited." In truth, he half wanted to get straight back. But there was no reason to hurry. They would tell him if anything changed with...Simmons. He didn't exactly know what to call her anymore. But he also realized that his mother needed some reassurance, and that she was right. It had been a while.

"So, you're staying?"

"I can stay a few days. Besides, American food is horrible. Well, except for Simmon's sandwiches. But they don't count as they're not made by an American. I need good Scottish food!"

"I picked up your favorites at the store yesterday. I was hoping you were staying at least a little while." She opened a cupboard, and he could see some packages he recognized well there.

"Mmmm...yummy!"


	20. Omega-3, part 6

_Disclaimer: Don't own it._

 _Author's Note: Sorry for the late posting, had internet issues earlier today. But it's time to wrap this one up, and with another decently long chapter too. Well, the case is wrapped up anyway, and thus this plotline. We may see the new Inhumans later however..._

* * *

 **Omega-3, part 6**

Zoonosis. An infectious disease of animals that can be transmitted to humans. That was their story. May didn't even have to ask Dr. Calder to help them come up with a cover story. She and Agent Weaver had worked it out together while May was tailing Skye. And it didn't even seem to cause too much of an furor. Granted, Ebola was also a zoonosis, and that caused a little bit of a stir among the news agency, but most seem to take the story that this was foodborne illness caused by a disease in a singular group of fish that just happened to be the same group that were processed by the supplement company. It sounded sketchy and unbelievable to May, but shockingly, people accepted it. It was crazy the stories people would accept as truth. Dr. Calder went back on the news, Skye and Claudia spread it about the internet, and suddenly the "truth" was out. People were happy with the idea that all the "poisoned" fish oil was removed from the shelves, and the company was pleased when Dr. Calder told them how unexpected it was and thus not really their fault. She and Agent Weaver also came up with a test that could be used on other seafood products to check for the "infectious spores" without actually giving up the biochemical signature of the Terrigen crystals, and the CDC distributed it. And everyone was happy.

Well, not quite. Artie was still upset over the "loss" of the confiscated fish oil, and May had to have Coulson order Hunter to lay a false trail for the Warehouse 13 agents, a task he did artfully if ungraciously, as he was grumbling about being away from Bobbi the entire time. She also had to pretend to jump on the trail so that the very-paranoid agent would not become overly suspicious. In reality, both the S.H.I.E.L.D and Warehouse 13 agents left the same day, but the S.H.I.E.L.D agents circled back to New Orleans the next day. They still had work to do.

Convincing Dr. Calder to allow them access to the survivors of the Terrigenesis outbreak proved impossible. So, they went around her. An old contact of Agent Weaver's proved incredibly useful in gaining access to the survivors themselves. Of the 47 final cases of complete ossification, four emerged alive and one of those four had a physical change as well. A young male had skin that turned a golden shade, similar to an Asian skin tone at a brief glance but definitely different on a second look. Agent Weaver offered them a way out of the CDC quarantine and participation in an all-expenses paid clinical trial. All four accepted, and disappeared, as far as Dr. Calder could tell. She wasn't very happy, but as Agent Weaver pointed out, they had rights. The CDC couldn't hold them indefinitely. She wouldn't admit to taking them, however.

"It's better that she doesn't know," she told Skye later.

Better for who, Skye wondered, but didn't press the issue. Instead, she worked on helping the survivors. They sat in the cargo hold of the quinjet, strapped into the jump seats, as May flew them back to the Playground.

"We haven't gotten to know each other yet," she started. "And I'm sure you guys have a lot of questions. Your lives have been turned upside down over the last couple of days. So, I'll start. I'm Agent Skye, but you can just call me Skye."

"Agent of what?" A black haired, brown eyed girl a little younger than herself asked.

"Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D," Skye answered calmly.

"But I thought you guys didn't exist anymore," she argued. "Or that you were bad guys, a terrorist organization. Wasn't your headquarters bombed or something a while back? And then there was the stuff in the news..."

"Well, I guess I'm glad you've heard of us," Skye said wryly. "But half the stuff that comes out in the news is sensationalized. Actually, probably most of it. S.H.I.E.L.D's still here. We had a little problem with...rot a while back, and had to do a deep-clean. The U.S. government had a little trouble with us, since some of our rot managed to get particularly high-level clearance. But we're coming back. New leadership, new base, new everything."

"Skye..." Agent Weaver started.

"I know, I know," Skye said, remembering the conversation they'd had the night before on what she could and couldn't tell them after they decided she'd do the introductions. Actually, Agent Weaver hadn't wanted Skye anywhere near it, but Coulson insisted. He told Skye it was good practice for C.A.T.E.R.P.I.L.L.A.R, though she wondered if maybe he didn't hope she would recruit these new powered people. "But they should know the basics," she told Agent Weaver. "If we want them to trust us."

"Why do you think we'll trust you?" the golden man said. "How do we know you won't just use us for lab rats, like the CDC."

"Well, for one, we're better equipped then the CDC for this. Weird is what we do, and what happened to you, that was weird." There were nods all around at that one. "And number two," she snuck a sly look at Agent Weaver, knowing this wasn't in her parameters, "you can trust me because I'm one of you."

"What?" the broad-shouldered, heavy young man with blue eyes and thin beard exclaimed.

"I'm one of you."

"Skye!" Agent Weaver exclaimed.

But Skye rode right over her. "I'm not supposed to say, but I think you have the right to know. What happened to you, happened to me too. Months ago. We didn't know what it was then, but since it happened, we've been studying it. And we think that we can help you."

"Agent Skye!"

"Well, you're still alive. I guess that's a good sign," the black-haired girl remarked. "Why is that? Why are we alive while so many died?" She spread her hands, indicating them all.

"Because we're special," Skye said.

"Special?" she raised an eyebrow.

"We'll explain it when we get back to the base, but basically, every survivor (that we know of) has something special in their body that allows them to survive the...pathogen." They started peppering her with questions so she threw up her hands. "I'm not a scientist. Just, be patient a little while longer."

They sat back. "That other agent is still glaring at you," the black-haired girl said. Skye knew this. She also knew it was because Agent Weaver really didn't want her to reveal the...unseen...side effect of Terrigenesis. But what she didn't know was that Skye agreed with her. At least, while they were airborne. On the ground, that was a different story. And one they probably couldn't avoid. Her powers jumped out of her with no notice at the beginning. Their powers probably would too.

"Yeah, well, I went beyond my 'mission parameters'", she explained, using air quotes. "Agent Weaver doesn't usually go for that. But I thought you should know. Since we're cozy, how about we finish introductions?" The topic really needed to change.

"Don't you know our names?" the bearded man asked.

"I know what your file has on it. I want to know about you. I'll start. I'm Skye. I have no last name that I can lay claim to. I'm a computer scientist/field agent. How about you?" she asked, turning the question back on him.

"I'm Sebastian Druid. I'm a pilot," he said.

"Cool. I'm learning how to fly whenever my S.O. has time, that is." She smiled. "But I think she kinda likes having the cockpit to herself."

"I'm Yolanda Rodriguez, but everyone calls me Yo-Yo," the black-haired girl announced. "I was born in Puerto Rico, but I immigrated here as a child. I just turned eighteen last month, and I guess I don't have a thing yet."

"And now your life's been turned upside down," Skye said, with a compassionate tone. "But don't worry. I have faith you'll find your thing."

"I don't see what she has to worry about," the golden man grumbled. "She's not gold."

"And you are?"

"Jerry Sledge," he retorted. Skye waited, but he didn't seem to want to add anything.

"You know," Skye said finally. "When I was...infected, I wasn't the only one. There was another woman there. She had a physical change too."

"Could you undo it?" he asked.

"We haven't figured that out yet," she told him sadly, not mentioning that Raina was dead. "But maybe if you'll work with us, we'll figure it out."

"You can always slather yourself in concealer," Yo-Yo added helpfully. Jerry glared at her.

"And lastly," Skye said, turning towards the member of their group who had yet to speak.

"Eden. Eden Fesi," the boy said. He looked about the same age of Yo-Yo, maybe even slightly younger. "I'm an Australian citizen. I was visiting friends in New Orleans. One of them died." He fell silent, as did the others in respect and in remembrance of those who died. "I asked the CDC when I could go home. They didn't really give me an answer. And I couldn't contact my embassy. So now I ask you. When can I go home?"

"I was there on vacation too," Sebastian told him. "Some vacation. When can we all go home?" he asked Skye. The four of them turned to Skye.

"The...clinical trial should last about two weeks?" she said, her tone rising at the end as she wasn't quite sure. She snuck a look at Agent Weaver, who nodded. "You should be free to go then. Or you can stick around. We'll be studying the...pathogen for longer than that. But the two weeks or so should be long enough for us to see how it's affecting you, and to take the requisite samples."

"Is it still infectious?" Jerry asked.

"No, the incubation period is quite short, which is how we got you sprung from the CDC's quarantine. We know more about it than them, that's for sure, but we're still figuring out it."

"I guess that you're the best we can hope for then," Jerry said dolefully. Skye wasn't sure she was thrilled with that analysis, but she'd take it. For now, she'd take it.

"We'll finish this conversation at the Playground," Agent Weaver cut in. "Agent Skye, may I speak to you privately." Despite the phrasing, it wasn't a request. Skye fought the urge to roll her eyes, and failed, and noticed Yo-Yo hiding a smile. She had a good feeling about that one. She wasn't sure what 'privacy' entailed on a quinjet this size, but made her way over to where Agent Weaver was sitting, a little away from the group, gritting her teeth against the lecture she was sure she was about to receive.

But it was not what she thought. "We heard from the Playground," Agent Weaver informed her with a slight smile on her face. "The coma broke, and Jemma woke up."

* * *

 _Author's Note 2: And I'll leave you with that little teaser about Simmons for next time. Also, if you're familiar with the comics, you may recognize these four new people. I'm taking my creative license and redoing some of their origin stories, as does the MCU (Quake's origin story, anyone?). We'll see more of them later (and a few others) in a new story-line, so let me know if there's anything you want to see?_


	21. The Monolith, part 7

_Disclaimer: Nothing's changed since yesterday._

 _Author's Note: Yay! Simmons is finally awake. She's either been either engulfed in the Monolith or in a coma struggling to survive since the fourth installment of this little series, and here we are, part 21. About time, I'd say. But, and I'm sorry for this, it's far from over. You'll see what I mean if you keep reading..._

* * *

 **The Monolith, part 7**

He sat by her bedside as she slept. She didn't look a whole lot different than she did a few days ago, maybe with some more color in her cheeks. It was hard to believe that the good news was true, that the coma broke yesterday and she actually woke up briefly. It seemed almost like a cruel joke. He flashed back to yesterday.

 _His cell phone rang. "Fitz," he answered, not bothering with his fake identity. Very few people had that number._

" _It's Coulson," the voice on the other end said._

" _Director, um, hi, what...is there something you need from me? What's going on? Is it Simmons?" Cold fear gripped his heart as his mind flashed through all the horrific possibilities._

" _She's awake." The two words froze the thoughts, and he temporarily lost the ability to think. Or speak. Or...breathe._

 _Take a breath, Fitz, he instructed himself. Yes, that's good. Now another._

" _Fitz, you still there?" Oh, right. Coulson's still on the line. He should reply to his superior officer._

" _Yes, sir," he managed."Just...wrapping my head around it."_

" _Dr. Streiten said she asked for you," the director told him warmly. "He was the only one around when she woke."_

" _May I speak with her?"_

" _She's sleeping now, real sleeping not unconsciousness, Streiten says. She was only awake for a few minutes. She asked for you, we told her you were visiting your mother, and she said that was good."_

" _That's Simmons for you," he said weakly._

" _Anyway, I thought you should know."_

" _Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." He hung up the phone. "Mum!" he called out._

" _What? Did something happen? Are you alright?" She looked startled, and anxious, so he hugged her._

" _Fantastic. Simmons...Ariella...Jemma..." he paused, not having figured out yet how to refer to her, "anywho, she's awake!"_

" _Ah, Leo, that's great," she said with a smile, hugging him back. "Were you able to speak with her?"_

" _She was sleeping."_

" _Recovery is exhausting," his mother said knowingly, drawing on her nurse side. He paused, looking a little guilty. "What's going on, Leo?" she asked._

" _They said, she asked for me," he said._

 _His mother smiled. "Go," she told him._

 _How did she know? he wondered, a little startled. "But I'm not supposed to leave til tomorrow. I was going to spend one more day with you."_

" _Go. I'm serious. Go be with your twin. And call me, Leo. Tell me about the reunion." She had one of those looks in her eyes, a look he learned a long time ago not to argue with._

 _He hugged her again. "I will. I promise. Thanks, Mum." He threw his things into his bag, including the snacks he picked up there, and went directly to the airport for the first flight out._

It had been an hour since he'd reached the Playground, and he'd gone straight to her room, his bag on the floor next to him. He cornered Dr. Streiten, who told him that no, she hadn't woken up again, but yes, he was sure the coma had broken and it looked like she would, probably soon. And no, it wasn't a wise idea to wake her. He'd just have to be patient. So he would be.

He pulled a box of Jaffa cakes from his bag and opened it. He meant to save the whole box for Simmons – they were her favorite – but he was hungry and he liked them too. And besides, maybe the smell would wake her up. He was tired of being patient, but he told himself he wouldn't deliberately try to wake her.

He was on his second cake when his ruse worked. Her eyes fluttered, and opened. "Jaffa cakes?" she whispered.

"I brought them for you," he admitted, "but then I got hungry waiting for you to wake up."

"Fitz," she whispered. "You're back. How was your mum?"

He smiled. What a Simmons comment. "Good. How are you?"

"Better. Confused. What happened to me?" His mind blanked in shock. She didn't know!? Fortunately, he was saved trying to explain by the arrival of Dr. Streiten.

"Agent Simmons, I'm glad to see you awake," he greeted her, entering the room.

"Dr. Streiten," she said. "I...you were here, before. But I thought...we couldn't find you."

"You've been quite ill, Agent Simmons. What do you remember?" he asked, bypassing her question.

"I was working on the Monolith. Fitz, you were there. We were going to have dinner. Then, nothing."

"The artifact affected you, Agent Simmons," Dr. Streiten told her gently.

"It ate you," Fitz added, a little more bluntly.

"Ate. How?"

"We don't know," Dr. Streiten told her, with a look at Fitz. "Fitz recovered you, but you've been in a coma since."

"Why?"

"Unknown. The tests are inconclusive. You developed aplastic anemia and needed a stem cell transfusion. After that, you started to get better."

"Want...to see...tests," she managed to get out, but it seemed like she was losing energy.

"When you're stronger," Dr. Streiten assured her. "You should get some rest," he told her, letting himself out but not before shooting a meaningful look at Fitz.

"How long?" she asked, turning to Fitz.

"Nearly three weeks all told," he informed her.

"Three weeks?! Feels like yesterday," she told him, a little breathlessly.

"Dr. Streiten is right. You should get some rest. You've been really sick. Recovery is exhausting, my mum says." He thought about telling her what else his mum told him, but decided it was not the right time. There would be time when she was stronger.

"Fitz," she said, her voice barely a whisper. "Come closer."

He leaned down over the bed. "What?"

"Two things. One, don't eat all my Jaffa cakes."

He smiled. "I won't. I got you tea too, the good stuff."

"And two. If I've been as sick as you said...and I feel it...I don't want to...just in case something happens..."

"Nothing's going to happen," he reassured her.

"I don't want to die without..." and with a surprising amount of strength, given her condition, she pulled his head down the last few inches and kissed him on the mouth.

He froze in shock for a moment, and reared back. "Simmons, we can't," he told her.

She looked at him confused. "I thought...I thought you liked me," she said.

He opened his mouth, to tell her the truth, but just then, several people passed by her open door, including one with a very strange skin color. He turned away from her to look. Skye poked her head in. "Hey guys! Gotta do this, but I'll be back in, like, two seconds."

"Okay," Fitz told her weakly, but she was already gone, walking down the hall with Agent Weaver and four strangers. He took a deep breath and turned back to Simmons, but she had fallen asleep again. He leaned back into his chair. What the bloody hell had just happened? His sister kissed him. Granted, she didn't know that, but still. How was he supposed to tell her now? What was he supposed to do?

He was so wrapped up in the shock of it all, that he hadn't noticed that her eyes flashed a brilliant, electric blue the moment she saw Skye. And Skye, caught up in situating the new people, hadn't noticed either.


	22. Clearing the Air, part 3

_Disclaimer: Not mine._

 _Author's Note: Were you expecting more Fitzsimmons? Sorry. Maybe next time. But I've had this scene in my head from before I even started to write this, and it's time for it to see the light of day. I love the May-Skye interaction on the show (especially the season finale!), and this is the result. It's my favorite chapter, at least so far. Let me know what you think?_

* * *

 **Clearing the Air, part 3**

"Morning," Skye said, entering the gym, reflexively checking the clock. Five o'clock sharp. Perfect. May was in the middle of some complicated looking Tai Chi set, so Skye wasn't really surprised when she didn't return the greeting. Actually, the surprise usually still came when the older woman said anything at all. She started her own warm-up, gently stretching out her body, feeling the pull on her muscles. It felt good; they hadn't had the time to train really while on the mission, and her body was feeling the lack.

"Up," May told her, a little while later. Skye rose to her feet, and knew to follow along as May went through a simpler form of her Tai Chi routine. It had been hard at first, but they'd been practicing a lot ever since that day in the motel when May had offered to teach her "hate fu". (Her words, not May's.) Now she could manage what she now knew of as the Beijing short form. Not only that, she could do with some grace, though she despaired of ever looking as competent and graceful as May.

They started with tree pose, centering themselves, breathing in tune, and moved on to 'parting the wild horse's mane', three steps, followed by 'white crane spreads his wings'. The three steps were undone in 'brush knee and push', and she carefully balanced for 'hand strums the lute'. At first, Skye found all the names rather amusing, but when May started saying them to her in Chinese, it just sounded so much better. Jiaying also had a morning Tai Chi routine, but Skye pushed those memories back, not wanting to sully these memories with May. She brought her attention back to her breath, on each extension of her limb, each pull of muscle, and on the lithe form just in front and off to one side of her. And she didn't allow her mind to wander again until they reached the end. She did notice that May had kept the pace leisurely this time. Sometimes she led them through it quickly, other times slowly, mostly somewhere in the middle, and Skye never knew what to expect. They could take anywhere from three to twenty minutes to finish the same form. Each was challenging in its own way.

May turned to face Skye, and they both just breathed deeply for several minutes, before May suddenly attacked her. Skye blocked the strike, and they commenced. This was another thing that May mixed up. Sometimes it was conditioning after Tai Chi, sometimes it was marksmanship (she noticed her aim was always the best then), sometimes she led her on a run through the entire Playground, treating it like an obstacle course. Today, it was sparring. She dodged and blocked punches and kicks, and tossed her in her own whenever there was an opening. Given that she was sparring May, that wasn't often. She had better luckk when May paired her against Bobbi or Hunter, who were still much better than her but not as good as May. She didn't think anyone was as good as May. Maybe not even Black Widow. Crap, that kidney shot hurt. Mind in the game, Skye, she scolded herself. She lunged, kicking out. May caught her foot, and flipped her, she rolled out of the way. Before she was barely stranding, May's leg whipped at knee height, trying to trip her, and Skye jumped it. She landed a kick on May that forced that other woman back, and then paid for it with a flurry of fast punches. There wasn't much else to do but keep her hands up and cover her face, but when May grabbed her shoulders to strike her with a knee, she kept them together, rolling backwards onto the mat, and flipping May over her. The older woman landed on her feet (Skye wasn't quite willingly to rule out cat-mutant yet, though she'd never admit it), and lowered her hands, indicating they were taking a break for the moment.

"Nice," May complimented her. Shock mixed with an unidentifiable fuzzy feeling followed that compliment. May's compliments were so very rare, and Skye relished them all the more for it.

"Thanks," she managed.

May moved over to the side of the mats and picked up two water bottles, tossing her one. Skye downed a quarter of it, using it to cover the slight embarrassment she felt as the compliment.

"You really are improving," she added.

Will wonders never cease? Well, two could play the game. "It's because I've got such a great S.O."

The corners of May's mouth tipped up slightly. "The best match is between a good teacher and a dedicated student," she replied. "If you only have one, nothing happens."

"Is that some kind of ancient Chinese saying?"

"It was told to me by my S.O.," May admitted.

"Oh."

"When I first offered to teach you, I didn't know how it would end up. I didn't even think you'd be up at five the next morning, but you were. That morning and every other morning we weren't out on a mission, or separated, or injured. You've made great gains. I'm...pleasantly surprised."

Skye didn't have a good response to that. May so rarely shared anything personal. But her tiny confession gave Skye the courage to say something she'd been meaning to say for a long time.

"Thank you," she said. May raised an eyebrow, inviting her to continue. "Not for the compliment, well, maybe for that too, but for everything. I know we were...rocky at first, but you were always there, protecting me, treating me like I was really part of the team. So thank you for that, and for giving me the skills to defend myself, for forgiving me when I messed up, for trusting me, for defending me to Agent Weaver and god knows who else. I just...it's not enough, but thank you."

"You're my student," the older woman said lightly.

This was either just May being her cool, calm, collected self, or she didn't realize what Skye was trying to say, and Skye really didn't want it to be the latter because she didn't think she'd ever have the courage again. "I mean it," she said. "It means a lot to me. I don't think...I don't know if you know how much. Before you...nobody's ever done that for me, not the nuns, not the countless fosters, nobody. Nobody believed in me. Nobody fought for me, and then taught me how to fight for myself. Coulson...he gave me a place to belong, people I could call my family. But you...you made me...more." She was at a loss for words, not knowing how to describe it in a way that May would understand. She could also feel the heat in her face and chest, and knew that it wasn't just caused by the vigorous sparring match earlier.

"Afterlife?" The question – no, the demand – brought her back.

"I thought so. But I was wrong. So wrong. My picture perfect, everything-I've-always-dreamed-about mother tried to kill me. My father...he saved me, in the end, but he's still...no, his _actions_ were monstrous. It's my fault, really. My disappearance is what turned them..." she didn't want to say _evil_ , but she felt it. And felt the guilt of it, a heavy weight on her shoulders trying to push her into the ground.

May was suddenly there, right in front of her, holding her shoulders and forcing her to make eye-contact. "Don't say that," she ordered. "Don't ever say that about yourself. It is not your fault. You were a baby. Children...a mother could never blame her child for being kidnapped. It's never the child's fault. The ones to blame are the kidnappers, the experimenters, the ones who took you and tortured her. Whitehall. Hydra." The intensity in her eyes was profound, and it scared Skye ever so slightly.

"See?" she said, pulling back and ducking her head. "You say stuff like that to me. You're..." she paused, but she couldn't stop herself at this point if she tried, "...you're more of a mother to me than Jiaying ever was." There was silence after her proclamation. She dared a look at May from under her bangs. She looked...shocked. The unflappable Agent May was shocked. And Skye couldn't help but feel that maybe she made a terrible mistake in admitting that. The tension coiled in her stomach like a vice on her insides.

A few more moments later, and May still hadn't so much as blinked. "I'll go," Skye said weakly, internally cursing herself for her stupidity. She just ruined the best thing she ever had with her stupid big mouth and tendency to wear her heart on her sleeve. She turned away, but a pair of arms stopped her. Her whole body instantly tensed, a reflex from years of never knowing if that would lead to a hug or harm (she much preferred initiating the touch), and found it was the former as May wrapped her in her arms. She didn't say anything, she didn't need to. The number of times she knew of May initiating a hug she could count on one hand, with fingers left over. She knew what it meant.

Or at least, she knew enough. That May didn't hate her for her confession. That she didn't just ruin what relationship they had. That maybe, she felt something...maternal, for Skye too. Skye didn't need to hear her say it, or not say it. In fact, she didn't want to. What if the response was, "I'm flattered, Skye, but you're not my kid"? She didn't think she could take that. So she didn't ask for words, for confirmation, for a confession. But she melted into the embrace, hugged the shorter woman back, and pretended, for that moment, that May was really her mother.


	23. The Monolith, part 8

_Disclaimer: Don't own it._

 _Author's Note: Sorry for the delay. So I wasn't planning on publishing this chapter quite yet, but from your reviews, it seems you want to know what's going on with Simmons. Much will be revealed here, but more questions will be asked. Please review, and let me know what you think. (This is not_ really _a plug for reviews, but it does let an author know that people are interested in the story, and for me at least, it gives me incentive to keep up the pace...)_

* * *

 **The Monolith, part 8**

 _**Takes place five days after the Monolith part 7**_

"Hey Simmons, how're ya doing?" Skye asked, poking her head into Simmons' room in the med bay.

"Oh, you know," Simmons' said vaguely, waving one hand around. "It's not all that entertaining in here."

"I remember that feeling," Skye said knowingly. "After I got shot, I got so bored. And you were my keeper."

"Yes, well, now I guess you feel I have had a taste of my own medicine. And had I known, I might have been a little more lenient with you."

Skye laughed a little at that. "Is there anything I can get for you? To, you know, relieve the boredom?"

"Actually, have you seen Fitz?"

"He's been in the labs," Skye said. "It's a bit surprising really. Given his earlier behavior, I wouldn't have expected him to leave your side."

"He was with me when I was unconscious?"

"I think the hardest mission I ever had was getting him to leave your side."

"Oh. It's just, he seems rather...absent now." Her face fell

"Maybe he just feels a little overwhelmed...or did something happen between you two?" She asked slyly. "I know what you were planning...before."

Simmons flushed. "He told you?"

"Yeah. It's cool. I think you guys would be perfect together."

"Ikissedhim," she said in a rush.

"Sorry, repeat?"

"I kissed him."

"You didn't!?" Skye exclaimed gleefully.

"Hush. Keep your voice down." She looked embarrassed.

"And then what?" she asked, her voice lower.

"He said 'we can't', and then he left." Simmons sounded frustrated.

"Yeah, well, maybe his head's a little messed up still. I mean, we didn't know you were alive and then you came back and we didn't know you were going to make it. It took a lot out of him."

"Oh. Perhaps." There was a pause. "Actually Skye, there is something you can do for me."

"Talk some sense into him?"

"No, not that," she said blushing. "I think I left something in the bay where the Monolith is. Will you cover for me while I get it?"

"Seriously? Are you even allowed out of bed? It hasn't even been a week since you woke up."

"I'm feeling much stronger now. And I'm the one with two doctorates."

"Two doctorates doesn't make you a good patient," Skye answered drolly. "Why don't you tell me what it is and I'll find it and bring it to you?" It seemed like the logical way.

"It's not that simple," the other girl dissembled. "I _need_ to go."

"Tell me, or I call Dr. Streiten in here, tell him what you're planning, and I'm sure he'll double the watch on you."

"Skye!" she protested the threat.

"Tell me." Skye was unyielding.

Simmons broke. "I need to see it. I need to...to process what happened."

"I can understand that," she said thoughtfully. "At least you have the ability to do that. But does it have to be now?"

"Yes," the other girl insisted.

"Well, I wouldn't cover for you..."

"Skye!" she whined.

"But I will take you there myself. I don't want you collapsing in the halls. Not after everything we've been through."

"I accept your compromise."

"I'll get a chair."

"I don't need a wheelchair."

"No wheelchair, no deal. How much have you even walked?"

"Down the hall...I concede the point." Skye smirked and left. She didn't see the small, triumphant smile on Simmons' face, or that fact that she rummaged through her things to get a certain object, which she carefully concealed in a pocket of her dressing gown.

"Here we go," Skye said, returning. Simmons declined her help in getting into the wheelchair, so Skye hovered nearby, preparing to catch her if she fell. She didn't. She set them on a brisk pace through the hallways.

"Everyone says you're stronger than you should be," she started conversationally. "Kinda like me, after you injected me with the alien drug."

"The GH-325? Impossible, we used all we had on you, and the rest was lost in the bunker or with John Garrett."

"Still, it's strange."

"Can we talk about something else? Like, who were those new people you brought in from your last mission?"

"How much do you know about my last mission?"

"It had to do with the Terrigen crystals. People died."

Behind her, Skye's face fell. No matter how many times people had told her it wasn't her fault, she still felt like it was. "They were the survivors," she told Simmons simply. "We brought them here so Lincoln could transition them."

"They've Inhumans?" The scientist clarified. Skye caught the tense note in her voice.

"Well, yes, if you go by genetics not culture," Skye embellished, thinking Simmons was worried about Jiaying and the War.

"There's a difference?"

"Yes." Simmons waited, but Skye seemed to be in no mood for saying more. They rolled in silence the short way left.

"Are you sure about this?" Skye asked as they reached the door.

"I'm sure, Skye. Thank you for asking."

Skye propped the door open, and pushed the wheelchair in. Mack was sitting in the corner. "Are you always here?" Skye asked ruefully.

"No, but when I'm not, the door's locked. I'm not going to let what happened with Fitzsimmons happen again. No offense, Simmons, I know it got you out."

"None taken," Simmons said lightly.

"Speaking of which, why are you here? Should you even be out of bed?"

"That seems to be the question of the day," Simmons responded as Skye let out a laugh at the scientist's tone.

"I understand your policy, but I was wondering if you could make an exception. I, for one, have no desire to repeat the experience, but I would like some privacy. I need to...process what happened."

"I don't know..." Mack said, worriedly.

"Please Mack?" she asked sweetly, turning big pleading eyes on him in a very unSimmons-like manner.

"Fine. Ten minutes. I need some coffee anyway. Don't mess with the locks," he shot a final warning as he left.

Skye made her way toward the door following him, before Simmons' voice stopped her. "You can stay," she said.

Skye was puzzled – h _adn't she wanted privacy?_ – but was willing to give Simmons what she wanted. "Alright."

She watched as Simmons locked the brakes on the wheelchair and stood up. "Should you really be doing that?"

"I'm fine, Skye," she said, and did not seem shaky on her feet. She walked over the container holding the Monolith and pressed a hand against the reinforced plexiglass. She stayed motionless for a few moments, and then ran her hand down the side.

Skye heard a click. "What..." she started, but Simmons interrupted.

"Will you come here please?" she asked sweetly.

"Is everything alright?" She started walking over there, but stopped dead as the door swung open. "Uh, Simmons, are you sure you should be doing that?" she asked nervously. "We don't want a repeat."

Simmons turned towards her. Her eyes shone electric blue, no pupil, no iris, no sclera, just pure electric blue that glowed slightly in the dimly-lit room. "Come here, Skye," she said again, coaxingly. She didn't sound like Simmons either. Simmons rarely used that tone.

"What happened to your eyes?" Skye asked, not moving from her spot.

"It doesn't matter." They stood at an impasse, until Simmons reached one hand into her dressing gown pocket, pulled out a handgun and pointed it at Skye. "I said, come here."

"What are you doing?" Skye asked, realizing that she was completely unarmed with a weapon pointed at her by someone she thought was her friend. "You realize that's a gun, right, not even an ICER? Do you even know how to use one of those? And why the fuck do you have it pointed at me?" She started feeling for the frequency of the weapon, to see if she could vibrate it apart before Simmons had a chance to use it.

Simmons released the safety. "If you try to use your powers, I will kill you. I can sense them. You have two options, Skye. Enter the Monolith or die. And you better decide quickly."

"Why?" she asked, stalling.

"You're a Kree slave-warrior, and you've been very bad. Your Masters want you back."

"Why are you doing this?"

"In Hala, they were very interested to know that their experiment worked. So they made me a Hunter. Now choose."

"Jemma, please," Skye tried, using Simmons' rarely used first name.

"Return to your Kree Masters or die, Skye. Choose."

"I..." but Skye didn't get to finish speaking as a shot rang out in the air and she instinctively threw herself to one side.

* * *

 _Author's Note 2: If this were twitter...#schemingSimmons_


	24. The Monolith, part 9

_Disclaimer: Still don't own it._

 _Author's Note: You didn't think I'd leave you on a cliffhanger too long, did you? Starts up right where the last installment finished. Let me know what you think?_

* * *

 **The Monolith, part 9**

She was lying on the floor. She didn't feel like she'd been shot again. Memories from before, from Ian Quinn, started to fill her mind, but she took a deep breath as May had taught her and pushed them back. Not now, she thought, followed by, had Simmons' missed? And more importantly, why and what the hell was going on?

Skye raised her head. Simmons was also on the floor, the gun lying next to her, near the still open door of the Monolith. Well, Skye would take care of that. She felt through the molecules in the air, and vibrated them just enough so the door slammed shut, the latch clicking automatically. In that moment, the Monolith melted, and seemed to rage like a small, stormy ocean, before reforming.

"How many times do I have to tell you? No powers."

She sat all the way up, and craned her head. Mack was standing at the door of the cargo hold, an ICER in his hands. "Hey, Mack, sorry about that," she managed. "Didn't want to leave it open."

"What the hell happened here? Why was Simmons trying to shoot you?"

Skye rubbed her elbow from where she smacked it as she fell. May would be pissed. How to fall – and not hurt herself – was one of the first things May had taught her. "Dunno," she told Mack. She watched as he moved towards Simmons, kicking the gun out of the way. "You ICEd her?" she asked.

"Seemed like the best thing to do," he said bluntly. "Seemed like she was trying to kill you too. When the lock was undone, an alarm sounded on my tablet so I came back here."

"Good for alarms," Skye said weakly. "How are her eyes?"

"Her eyes?" he sounded confused, but he looked down to check them. "Normal. Why?"

"They were glowing blue earlier," she told him.

Coulson and May burst into the room. "What happened?" Coulson asked.

"Simmons tried to kill Skye," Mack told them, picking Simmons up. "Vault D?" he asked Coulson, who nodded.

"Just until we figure this out," he said, as May moved towards Skye. They exchanged a look, and Coulson left with Mack and Simmons, leaving May to check on Skye.

"Are you okay?" she asked her student.

"Define okay."

"Are you physically injured?"

"No."

"Debrief, Agent Skye. What happened?"

"She tried to kill me." Skye still couldn't believe it.

"Details."

"I visited her in the med bay. She seemed fine, although she was missing Fitz. They kissed, did you know that? Those two have had something between them for years, and they finally kissed. I wonder if that means they'll be together? But Fitz pulled away..."

"Stop rambling, Skye. I trained you better," May admonished lightly, monitoring her own physiological reactions. Hearing that Skye almost died again...it set her heart aflutter in a way she was starting to associate with the young hacker. And not just following her astonishing confession.

"Sorry. At first she said she left something here. I offered to get it. Then she said she needed to come here, to process what had happened to her. I get that. I finally agreed to take her, feeling like she'd be safer that way. She talked Mack into leaving us alone, then she got up and walked over to the Monolith. She undid the lock, opened the door, and told me to come." Skye took a breath, and held it.

When it didn't seem like she was going to continue anytime soon, May prompted her. "And then what?"

She released the breath. "I didn't. I didn't go to her. Then she pointed to gun at me. Simmons pointed a gun at me."

May focused on that detail. There was a weapon unaccounted for. Had Simmons been disarmed? Was she still a danger? Did she have to warn Coulson to frisk her before she woke up and tried to attack Skye again? "Where's the gun now, Skye?"

She waved her hand. "Mack kicked it over there somewhere." May got up from where she was crouched next to Skye and walked over. In moments, she had retrieved and disassembled it.

She walked back to Skye. "Keep going."

"I tried to talk to her, ask her why. She told me...she told me..."

"What, Skye?" May asked, in a far more gentle tone that Skye was used to hearing from her. It gave her strength.

"She said I had a choice. Return to my Kree masters or die. She called me a Kree slave-warrior. Oh, and apparently the Monolith is a portal to Hala. Or something. And she's a Hunter. She didn't say...but I think she's hunting Inhumans. And now she knows about the newbies."

May jumped up in a flurry of action and orders. In moments, four guards were in the room, their bodies and guns trained on the Monolith. Skye could hear her instructing them, telling them it was a portal to an alien world, and to shoot anyone trying to come through it. And if they let someone unlock the door to the containment chamber, they'd answer to her. It was enough of a threat to make men twice her size pale.

Then she helped Skye up off the floor. "We have to tell Coulson about this," she said. "Is that all you have to tell me?"

"Her eyes...they were blue. Like, totally, electric glowy blue. They weren't blue while we were coming here, or after Mack ICEd her."

"Interesting..." May said. She led Skye out of the room, with its newly reinstated guard, and brought her to Vault D.

They reached the vault just as Dr. Streiten was checking over Simmons. She was still unconscious, but he assured Coulson that it was the result of the ICER, not a relapse of her illness, and that she should be waking up soon. He also examined her eyes, once Mack told him what Skye had witnessed.

"There's nothing intrinsically wrong with them," he told Coulson. "Perhaps, if when they were changed, I had the opportunity to examine them, but it seems like whatever it was wore off." He took another sample of blood, and left, but not before offering to check out Skye, who declined. She wasn't physically hurt, she assured him, but May wondered if she might need Andrew after this _and_ the Terrigenesis deaths. He was due to come back, to speak with the new Inhumans anyway. She made a private resolve to mention Skye to him.

Simmons began to stir, and Coulson brought up the containment field, making it transparent so they could talk to her. May instinctively moved to stand slightly in front of Skye, to protect her, and wished she could do the same to Coulson. He was, after all, Inhuman too now. Simmons groaned.

"There's Tylenol and water next to the bed," Coulson said. "A headache is expected from the dendrotoxin." Simmons reached blindly for the pills, and tossed them down with the water. In a few minutes, she opened her eyes and trained them on Coulson. They flashed blue, as Skye had described, but so quickly that they doubted they'd seen it at all.

"Sir," she asked wonderingly. "Where am I? Wait...is this Vault D? What happened?" She looked and sounded very convincingly confused, and very much like Simmons.

"What do you remember?" Coulson asked carefully.

"I was talking with Skye, in med bay. I think...I think we were talking about going to the Monolith, but I don't remember why. What happened?"

"You really don't remember?" Skye asked sharply. "You tried to kill me!"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Skye. You're my friend. I'd never try to kill you! Why would I do something like that?" She sounded sincere, but Skye had a hard time trusting her.

"Simmons, what happened when you were in the Monolith?" Coulson asked.

"Sir, I've already talked to Agent Weaver and Dr. Streiten about this. Didn't they inform you?"

"Indulge me, and tell me yourself."

"There's not much to tell, sir. I don't remember. It feels like I wasn't gone any time at all, but they tell me that wasn't the case."

"Were you in Hala?" May asked. Coulson turned to stare at her.

"Hala?" Simmons asked.

"The Kree home-world," May clarified.

"No, I think I'd remember that, Agent May," Simmons said. "Please, someone tell me what's going on."

"The artifact affected you, Agent Simmons," Coulson said. "Mack...he had to ICE you. That is the source of your headache."

"I know a dendrotoxin headache when I feel one," she told him drolly. "Affected me how?"

"We're going to figure that out," he assured her. "But for everyone's safety, I think it is best that you remain here for the time being. We'll be sure to continue your medical care here."

Simmons frowned. "If you think that's necessary, of course, Director."

"I do."

"But can I please speak with Fitz?" she asked, her voice raising at the end, starting to sound a little hysterical.

"I'm here, I'm here," Fitz said, racing into the room slightly out of breath. "Will someone tell me what's going on? Why did Mack have to ICE my sister?" He gasped, and covered his mouth with his hand a second too late.

They all turned to look at him with shock in their eyes. "YOUR SISTER?!"

* * *

 _Author's Note 2: Just to clarify, Simmons' eyes flash blue very briefly the first time she sees an Inhuman, but it goes away. So far, she's only seen Skye and Coulson, and knows that there are four new Inhumans on the base plus Lincoln, but Lincoln's been busy transitioning them and so hasn't been a part of her care. Also, what Simmons says she remembers, at least when her eyes aren't blue, it's the truth. She really has no idea. But more on that later._


	25. Family, part 2

_Disclaimer: Don't own it._

 _Author's Note: And here we are, picking right up from where the last installment of 'The Monolith' left off. Some of this will seem a little repetitious, but Fitz has to catch Simmons up and they have to start dealing with some of the feels that come along. And the rest is a bit filler, but it sets up the next few pieces. Let me know what you think?_

* * *

 **Family, part 2**

"YOUR SISTER?!"

"Fitz, what's going on?" Simmons asked.

"It's why I went to my mum's," Fitz started, and then felt at a loss.

"Why don't you start from the beginning?" Coulson prompted gently.

"You were sick," Fitz said, looking at Simmons. "Dr. Streiten tested everyone on base to see if one of us was a match. I was. He was surprised. It's unusual, a non-familial match on all six HLA genes and improbable that one would be found among this limited number of people. So he ran more tests. And he found out that we're genetically full siblings."

"But...that's impossible," Simmons said. "Our birthdays are twenty-three days apart."

"Actually, they're not. We were born on the same day. Your birthday was changed by your adoptive parents."

"If you were born on the same day, in the same year, doesn't that make you...TWINS?" Skye asked, temporarily forgetting what just happened between them in the drama that was now playing out. "Not just siblings?"

"Well, yes, but fraternal twins have the same genetic similarities as any other full sibling. Only identical twins would be different."

"Wait," Simmons said, ignoring Skye's gleefulness. "I know I'm adopted, but you aren't. Does that mean our mother gave me up but kept you?"

"No, not exactly," Fitz started, but Coulson interrupted.

"Why don't we give them some time?" he suggested to Skye and May.

"But..." Skye began, clearly engaged in the topic of conversation.

"Not until someone tells me why she's in Vault D," Fitz interrupted forcefully.

Coulson and May exchanged looks, but it was Simmons who answered Fitz. "Apparently the alien artifact affected me in ways we don't quite understand yet, and it caused me to behave...erratically."

"And violently," Skye muttered.

"Simmons? Violent?" Fitz asked, picking up on Skye's comment and clearly confused.

"It would seem as though I attacked Skye, though I don't remember doing so," she told him, before turning to Skye. "I really don't, I promise. I would never hurt you."

Skye looked slightly mollified, but she didn't respond to her and she was secretly glad there was a force field between them.

"So, now what?" Fitz asked finally, breaking the silence that had fallen.

"Now we leave you two alone to figure out your...family stuff," Coulson said, stumbling over the words slightly, "and we try to figure out what happened to you so we can get you out of here," he finished, talking to Simmons directly.

"Thank you, sir," she said softly.

Coulson and May pulled Skye out of the vault. "May, if you would continue your work on the journal, that may give us some more information." May nodded, and left. "Skye..."

"I need a nap," Skye announced.

He grinned. "Alright. You debriefed with May?" At Skye's nod, he continued, "She'll catch me up then. When you're feeling better, check on our guests?" She nodded again, and followed May's path out the vault. "And I'll check to see if Dr. Streiten and Agent Weaver have found anything. And remember to have Mack pull the security feed for the Monolith. I want to know what really happened in there," he said under his breath, to no one in particular as he walked away.

Regardless, Fitz overheard him. "We'd all like to know what really happened in there," he muttered.

"Sorry, what was that?" Simmons asked.

"Nothing," he said.

"Tell me, tell me the truth," she ordered.

"You were born Ariella Elizabeth Alexander, on August 19, 1987, in London. I was born Leopold Edward Alexander, eight minutes earlier than you."

"So you are older than me," she remarked.

"Our mother's name was Sarah Jane Alexander..."

"That's not your mum's name," Simmons interrupted.

"No."

"So you're adopted too," she said.

"My mother knew our mother. She was her best friend."

"What happened?"

"Our mother died in a car accident shortly before our second birthday. We were placed in care, and separated. My mother was out of the country, and by the time she got back, you were already in your adoptive placement and she couldn't do anything about it even though she wanted both of us."

"I love my parents," Simmons said.

"I know," Fitz replied. "I love my mum."

"Ariella?" she asked.

"It means 'lion of god', in Hebrew," he told her. "We were both named for lions. But our mother called us Leo and Lela."

"Leo and Lela," she mused. "That's sweet. But I don't think I can think of myself as an Ariella. I mean, I'm Jemma Elizabeth Simmons. I've always been, at least, that I remember."

"Apparently I reacted poorly to being separated from you as babies," he told her. "A child psychologist told my mum it was better if they...reshaped my memories."

"Interesting," she said. "I have no idea how I reacted. I don't have any memories from before I was about four."

"You could ask your mum and dad," he suggested.

"I could," she agreed without really agreeing to do it. "my dad..what about our birthfather?" she asked him.

"I don't know," he said. "He's not listed on our original birth certificates and my mum doesn't know who he was. Apparently our birthmum met him while she was at uni, and he was guest lecturer or something."

"We should try to find him," she said. "I thought I never needed to know who my birthparents were, but now this, I feel like I need to know."

"Alright," Fitz agreed.

She suddenly had a look of horror on her face, and he had a bad feeling he knew exactly what she was thinking. "I kissed you," she said finally, hiding her face in her hands.

"It's alright, you didn't know," he reassured her. She didn't reveal her face, so he tried something he thought would make her feel better. "I was the one who told you my feelings weren't entirely platonic first," he admitted.

She peeked. "True. Can we just agree we didn't know the truth but we did know that there was something more than friendship between us and never talk about it again?"

"Works for me," he said quickly.

"Good."

"Now what?" she said.

"We'll figure this out," he told her. "Together. Just like we always do. We're Fitzsimmons."

She smiled. "You're right. I still can't quite comprehend you're my twin yet, but...something about it...it feels right."

"I know. It's like...finding a missing piece of a puzzle," he said.

"I adored jigsaw puzzles as a child," she admitted.

"Me too," he said with a smile.

She made him go over every detail of his conversation with his mum, again, and made him promise to show her the picture of their birthmother. At one point, she made him leave to get her the picture and a tablet that had the results of Dr. Streiten's research on them, just so she could double-check his work. He grinned. She was a consummate scientist. She wouldn't really believe anything until she could see the experiment and the proof with her own eyes. And only then, would she admit the truth.

And she did.

* * *

 _Author's Note 2: And that's the end of any possibility of Fitz/Simmons romance. No, it wasn't a mistake or caused by the Monolith. And yes, I had this planned from the start. Actually, I predict they won't end up in the show together either. I can't see Joss Whedon allowing the cute nerdy couple to work. After all, look what he did with Fred and Wesley in_ Angel _...anyone else seeing some similarities here?_


	26. Heritage, part 4

_Disclaimer: Nothing's changed from last time._

 _Author's Note: And back to this one. It's been a while, I know, and it's a shorty. But you have to admit, I've kept them pretty much on their toes recently. You might want to consider rereading 'Heritage, part 3' for the hints I dropped there if this seems a little out of the blue. Let me know what you think?_

* * *

 **Heritage, part 4**

"Phil," May said, entering his office at a pace anyone else would consider rushed. "I found something." She was holding the leather bound journal she'd taken from the Afterlife archives.

"Yes?" he asked, dropping the blueprints he was holding. Whatever this was, it clearly required his full attention.

"I found the original prophecy about the Monolith. The Inhumans, they were right that it was something to be feared, but I used an alternative translation of a few words...I think it was translated from Kree, originally, but I don't know who translated it or how..."

"Go on." It almost sounded like May was babbling, but that was impossible...right?

"It goes something like this... _When the weapons are ready for use, the guardian shall place the Diviners in each cavity and a gateway will open between it and its brother. Then the Kree can return to claim their weapons._ The Kree left it here, but the Inhumans never followed through."

"That might have been what Simmons meant when she told Skye that she'd been very bad," Coulson mused. He noticed the look May gave him. "I reviewed the footage from the security cameras."

"I'm surprised she didn't dismantle them, given what she was planning," May said, with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes. It's strange. As is this prophecy. The weapons – that clearly refers to the Inhumans. Our blue visitor called them such. 'It and its brother' seems to refer to the Monolith; presumably there is another on Hala. The 'gateway' is the portal, which clearly, Simmons passed through. But how?"

"There were no Diviners in the cavities."

"That's what I mean. They seem to be the key to opening up the portal, and we don't have one. The only one we ever had our hands on was the one Tripp died to destroy."

"And the case is empty," May reminded him, the case both Vintak and Lady Sif had been after.

"Lincoln said their scientists were working on synthesizing the crystals. I think we need to know more about that. Good thinking, putting a guard on that thing. After Gordon died, it didn't seem to be necessary anymore." May nodded. "And lastly, who is this 'guardian'?"

May hesitated. "I think I might know." She seemed uneasy, and Coulson grew immediately concerned. _The_ Agent Melinda May, uneasy?

"Tell me," he prompted.

"There's only one Kree specimen on Earth, that we know of," she said, and watched Coulson blanch.

"The Guest Host," he breathed. "But the Strategic Scientific Reserve confiscated that from Hydra after World War II."

"But Hydra didn't have it first. From this journal, it would appear they took it from the Inhumans."

"You believe he is this guardian?"

"It makes sense. He was found with the Monolith. They killed him."

"Jiaying?" The question was automatic, and then he thought about it. It had been dead thousands of years, and while she was long-lived, she hadn't been around that long.

"No, far before even her time. Some predecessor, most likely," May confirmed. "They too experimented with the corpse."

Coulson winced. "It doesn't sound right when you put it that way." May raised an eyebrow. "But you're right. And now it's all falling into place. Thank you for letting me know," he said, but May didn't leave. "There's more?" If anything, she looked even more uneasy than before. "Whatever it is, it can't be worse than T.A.H.I.T.I."

"During a bid to increase their population, the Inhuman researchers during the author's time found that if they made humans – non-descendants – drink the blood of the Kree, the humans would be immune to the Diviner metal."

Coulson froze. He could read all sorts of implications into that statement. "Did they expose these humans to Terrigenesis?" he asked carefully.

May kept her gaze neutral. "Yes," she told him evenly.

"And?"

"They were changed."

"Are you saying..."

"I don't know. But it's a possibility we should consider."

* * *

 _Author's Note 2: Sorry if May seems a little OOC, but given the last time she was working with Coulson about something like this, and the implications this time...well, let's just say she has every right to feel uneasy and she's actually letting it show a little bit for once. It's character growth, right?_


	27. CATERPILLAR, part 1

_Disclaimer: Still waiting to hear back from Marvel about my bid..._

 _Author's Note: Time to get back to the newbies, don't you think? See how they're fairing? Fair warning, the beginning is going to be a little slow, but we'll see some action, so hang in there and let me know what you think/want to see? Reviews are love, people._

* * *

 **C.A.T.E.R.P.I.L.L.A.R., part 1**

"Skye!" Skye turned towards the voice, and found Yo-Yo in her room in the med bay.

"Hey, Yo-Yo, how's it going?" she asked the younger girl.

"The needle thing is weird," Yo-Yo said, making a face. "But that Lincoln guy is hot!" She winked, and then lowered her voice, dropping her head. "I haven't seen you around much the last couple days."

"Yeah, sorry about that. There's been a lot of stuff going on. Another agent..." she trailed off, not sure how much she should share about what was going on with Simmons.

"Yeah, I get it, you're an agent," Yo-Yo said dismissively. "Too busy to hang out with us freaks."

"Us freaks?" Skye questioned. "Have you forgotten what I told you?"

"You're Agent Freak," the younger girl said irreverently. Skye took the teasing for what it was, and stuck out her tongue at Yo-Yo, who giggled.

"Bored?" she asked.

"It's all guys around here, ya know?" Yo-Yo said. "And TV gets old after a while."

"Yeah, I get that." She thought for a moment. "Have you met Agent Morse? She's just down the hall."

"She's kinda scary," Yo-Yo admitted.

"Scary?" Skye asked. Bobbi had been bed-bound for weeks, and was only just getting mobile enough to move around on her own.

"Well, you know," she said, a little bashfully. "And that husband of her's just glares all the time."

"Ex," Skye said absently, while she consisted this. Bobbi could be an...intimidating woman. Skye had felt that, at the beginning, until she'd gotten to know that older agent better. And Hunter was well-known for scaring off anybody who he thought threatened her rest and recovery.

"Ex?" Yo-Yo gave her a doubtful look. "Yeah right."

Skye laughed. "It's complicated." She paused. "Has Lincoln talked to you yet, about what all this means?" With everything going on with Simmons, she'd pretty much passed the baton to Lincoln in this. She justified it by saying he had so much more experience. He wasn't unhappy with the extra responsibility. In fact, she thought he seemed rather comfortable in this role, at least as opposed to S.H.I.E.L.D doing it.

"You mean the messed up genetics, the Inhuman thing, and the superpowers? I thought that was a joke," Yo-Yo said.

Skye smiled slowly, and concentrated. A Coke bottle next to Yo-Yo began to shiver slightly and clack around.

"What the..." Yo-Yo started to say, noticing it. Skye released the bottle, and Yo-Yo grabbed it. "What was that?"

Skye concentrated again, and shook the hospital bed Yo-Yo was sitting on.

"Hey!" she said.

Skye stopped. "After I was infected by the Terrigen crystals, I began to be able to control the vibrations of objects around me."

"No shit."

"I'll admit, it wasn't pretty at first. I caused a couple of earthquakes and a lot of trouble before I got a handle on it."

"Earthquakes?" Yo-Yo asked nervously.

"Small ones," Skye said. "I could probably make a bigger one if I wanted to, but I haven't wanted to. I broke a whole shelf of dishes once. But that's in the past. I learned control."

"So the superpower shit is for real? How does that even work?"

"We don't know exactly. And everyone seems to manifest differently."

"Does that mean...do I...?"

"Yes," Skye told her bluntly.

"What is it?"

"You'll figure it out. There's no test to determine it."

"Am I going to turn gold, like Jerry?"

Skye laughed. "No. If you have a physical change, it happens during the infectious period."

"Good."

"Besides, am I gold?"

"Well, no," the younger girl admitted.

"Is being gold a superpower?" she continued.

"No. Some people have just superpowers. Some people have a physical change and superpowers. I've never heard of anyone with just a physical change."

"So, does this make us like the Avengers? Do you get to hang out with them?"

"No, I've never met the Avengers. But Director Coulson used to hang with them. But the Avengers are more than just powered people. I mean, Hawkeye and Black Widow don't have superpowers, right?" Yo-Yo nodded slowly. "I think being an Avenger is more about what you do with what you got, like saving the world. Or, making a difference. Making things better."

Yo-Yo nodded. "You think...you think I could do that? Make a difference? I mean, depending on what power I got."

"I don't think it matters what power you get. I think you could make a difference if you wanted to."

"I'd like that."

Skye hesitated, before coming out with it. "You know, if you're not in any hurry to go home, you could stick around after the clinical trial is over? We could work on making a difference together," she offered. Coulson hadn't said anything about recruiting any of them to this C.A.T.E.R.P.I.L.L.A.R project he had her working on, but he hadn't said anything about _not_ recruiting them either.

Yo-Yo smiled. "Yeah, I'd like that. Give me a chance to find my thing." She paused. "This isn't really a clinical trial, is it?"

Skye grimaced. "Not exactly," she admitted. Time for a change of topic. "I came down to tell you all that we ordered pizza for dinner."

"I love pizza."

"Who doesn't?"

"And since I think you need a break from this, how about coming to the dining room?"

"You mean, for real? With the agents and stuff?"

"Yeah, for real. C'mon, Yo-Yo," Skye beckoned. "Let's grab the rest of them."

They picked up Sebastian and Eden, but Jerry declined. Lincoln had told Skye that he was having trouble coming to terms with his change in skin color. Skye was trying to be sympathetic, but compared to Raina's spikes and Gordon's eyes, surely golden skin wasn't all that bad. She promised to send pizza down to him (anything with meat, as requested).


	28. Clearing the Air, part 4

_Disclaimer: Still wish I owned it._

 _Author's Note: Skye's not the only one who has air she needs to clear with people. There's some more feels in this one. And some hints that may turn into something later...Let me know what you think?_

* * *

 **Clearing the Air, part 4**

They twirled glasses of scotch. "How has your time been back?" May asked conversationally. She hadn't seen Andrew since she left with Skye and Agent Weaver for New Orleans. He'd left the Playground during her absence, something about other responsibilities. It was understandable, given the time he'd spent here following their interrupted vacation. At least, he could stay then, since he was still technically on vacation from work during that time.

"Busy. I spoke with the four infected by the Terrigen crystals. I can't reveal-"

"Of course."

"But it is as to be expected. Their lives turned upside down. Many of them saw people they cared about die in front of them. Survivor's guilt. But fortunately there's no real surprises. No baby axe-murderers." It was an old joke of their's.

"That's a relief." She remembered the joke too.

"I also spoke to Skye. She blames herself for much of what happened with the Terrigen crystals, but she's...dealing. She tells me you've been helping her."

She knew what he was – _and wasn't_ – asking, but she ignored the subtle question. "She's my student. It's my job. And Simmons?"

"I spoke with her, also. She's still coming to grips with everything. It will take a while. But I believe her when she says that she has no memory of when she is altered. And I spoke to Skye about her, if that's what you're asking. She was upset, understandably, but she processed that pretty quickly. She knows how it is to be affected by something and not able to control your actions."

"True."

"And I spoke to Leo as well, with Jemma, about their newfound relationship. Fancy that – separated twins!"

"And?" Knowing the twins, she didn't really find it all that shocking. She could understand why Andrew might be surprised though.

"They're confused. They have every right to be. And they're trying to sort through their feelings about everything that happened. But I am confident they'll be able to." He poured them another scotch.

"So, nothing major," May remarked.

"Depends on your definition of major," Andrew scoffed. "But by your definition, yes. I suppose that's an accurate analysis." He sipped at his scotch, swirling it lightly in the glass. "Phil's got the good stuff," he commented. "How'd you get it this time?"

"I have my ways," she told him mysteriously.

He grinned, and sipped again. "You know, Skye told me something you told her. About mothers never blaming their babies for being kidnapped. I'm proud that you're willing to even allude to it. Have you told her?"

"No." The answer was harsh, final.

"Why not?" he persisted.

She turned on him. "My baby died," May said sharply. "That's not something you go around telling people."

"I know, Mel," he told her compassionately. "It's hard to deal with. But that doesn't mean you can't ever love another. Like I told you months ago, she really looks up to you. And deep inside her is a wounded, motherless child trying to reach out. It's amazing, after everything's she been through, that she's still willing to try."

"I don't think I can."

"I know you can, but I think you're scared. It almost destroyed you last time, and you were only just starting to consider the idea again when Bahrain happened, and it almost destroyed you again."

"There won't be a third time. There can't be a third time."

"Are you going deny both of you this relationship because of your fear?"

"I'm her S.O. I'm teaching her to be a field agent, and she's going to be a damn good one. That's good enough."

"Maybe," he agreed, dropping the topic and sipping at his scotch. They sat in a companionable silence for a short while.

"To change the topic," he started.

"Please."

"I was wondering if you put any thought into finishing our vacation?" He leaned closer to her. "I love you in that little red bikini. I've been trying to rearrange my schedule at the office-"

She moved away. "Andrew, I can't do this."

"Mel, I know you're busy right now, but it is possible to have a life outside S.H.I.E.L.D. You just sometimes have to prioritize things."

"No, I mean, I can't do this." She gestured between the two of them. "It was fun, revisiting the past with you in Costa Rica, but the past needs to stay buried. You're still my friend, and I'm grateful we can work together again – I hope that won't change – but we can't start something up again."

He stood up. "Our professional relationship won't change, but Mel, if you leave me again, I'm not coming back a third time."

"I know, Andrew. I'm sorry. After everything, I thought...but it's – we're just not meant to be in the long run."

"Is there someone else? Coulson? I know you two had a thing once..."

She raised an eyebrow. He glared back. She knew he hated it when she did that, so she used her words. "That was nearly thirty years ago. We were different people then, Andrew, don't be ridiculous. There is no one else. This is about me doing what I need to do for me. I'm sorry that you're hurting," she said, laying a hand on his arm in a gesture meant to be comforting.

He pulled away. "It's fine, Melinda. I'll see you around," he said, walking away from her – and their relationship – for the last time.

* * *

 _Author's Note 2: I know, I'm breaking everyone up. First Fitzsimmons turn out to be twins and now May/Andrew (what's the ship name for that? Mandrew? No matter, that ship has sailed. At least in this story). Sorry. Relationships aren't really my forte. But, we'll get there. Oh, but don't worry about Bobbi and Hunter; I think they've gone through hell enough already and what Bobbi did for him, now that's love. Screwed up maybe, but love._


	29. CATERPILLAR, part 2

_Disclaimer: Don't own it._

 _Author's Note: Wow, yesterday was my second highest day in terms of reads, and thanks to the two of you who left comments. (Apparently, the ship name is Maydrew. And to the question about a certain pairing, we'll see some of that. Down the line a bit. There's some hints of it if you read some of the previous chapters closely. Whether or not it's endgame, that's yet to be determined.) As a reward, I'm posting this a day earlier than planned. It picks up pretty much where part 1 leaves off. We focused on Yo-Yo before, let's move on._

* * *

 **C.A.T.E.R.P.I.L.L.A.R., part 2**

"Where are we?" Eden asked conversationally, as they sat around munching on pizza. They found Coulson and Billy around the pizza boxes. Several slices from each box were already gone. Fitz and Hunter, Coulson had said. May and Andrew were nowhere to be found.

"We call it the Playground," Skye told him, after a quick glance at Coulson. She wasn't sure how much she could reveal. It was supposed to be a secret base, after all.

"The Playground?" Yo-Yo said. "That's a weird code name."

"Yeah, well, I didn't name it," Skye said defensively.

"But where is it?" Eden persisted

"The location is classified," Billy Koenig told him, affronted. "Else it wouldn't be a secret base, would it?"

"Continent?" Eden tried.

"North America," Coulson told him. Billy shot him a dirty look.

"Oh. That's what I thought. We weren't in the air very long coming here. What, two hours?"

"Why are you so interested?" Skye asked, rather than answering.

"Just curious how far I am from home," Eden told her sadly. She nodded. She knew his homesickness was intense. "Can we go outside?"

"Feeling cooped up?"

"I'm just, not used to be inside so long," he admitted.

Skye looked at Coulson. "I think that can be arranged," Coulson told him. "How about after dinner?"

Eden nodded enthusiastically. "That would be great," he said, and quickly finished off his pizza. Skye hid her smile at his eagerness.

They made a trip of it, since both Yo-Yo and Sebastian wanted to come as well, and Coulson walked them out. Skye watched as Eden lost the hunched posture he'd had since she'd first met him the moment he got outside. She walked over to him as he stared up at the stars.

"It's different from home," he remarked.

"Are you interested in astronomy?" she asked.

"Oh, yes. And geography."

"We have some scientists here who know a lot about the stars, if you want."

"The Southern constellations are much different from the Northern ones," he remarked, rather than answering. "But I've studied both extensively, including the time I spent in...New Orleans." He paused. "In fact, I'd almost say I know where we are. Given the position of the stars from New Orleans, and the time that's passed, I'd say we were north of New Orleans. With the two hour flight, that would probably put us in..."

Coulson interrupted, having joined them. "The stars are gorgeous, aren't they?" he said, keeping Eden from disclosing his guess at their location. "What a beautiful, clear night. I wonder if we have a telescope."

"Fitzsimmons would know," Skye said. "Or Billy."

"Perhaps we should go in and ask," he said. "Wouldn't you like that?" he asked Eden.

Eden turned to face them. "When can I go home?" he said bluntly.

"Soon," Coulson reassured him.

But Eden wasn't have any of it. "Soon? That's what everybody says. That's what the CDC said and it's been weeks. I haven't even been able to tell my family I'm alive!" he said, his voice rising.

They had attracted the attention of Yo-Yo and Sebastian, who wandered over.

"The trial is almost finished. Once you're finished transitioning, we'll arrange for you to go home," Skye told him.

"No. I'm not accepting that anymore. How do I know you'll do as I say? We're prisoners here, aren't we?"

"You're not," Coulson told him. "You're our guests."

"Then why can't we leave?" Eden insisted. Sebastian moved to stand by him, and Skye could see Yo-Yo wavering, her feelings torn between what had happened and Skye's invitation for her future. "Sure you let us outside, but there's nothing around here to run too."

"Just hang on a little while longer," Coulson coaxed.

"I'm tired of hanging on!" Eden yelled. He flung his head up to the stars and spread his hands open. "I want to go home!"

There was a flash of light, and then he vanished, leaving four shocked people in his wake.

Yo-Yo broke the silence. "Is that an example of those superpowers you were telling me about?" she asked Skye. "Because I don't think normal people can just vanish. And that was like, super cool."

Skye nodded weakly. "I think Eden's powers just manifested. They are, often, triggered by strong emotion."

"Where'd he go?" Sebastian asked, finding his voice.

"Australia," Coulson said, without thinking.

Sebastian stared him. "You sound sure. How do you know? Do you have trackers in us?" he asked, wary.

"It's his gift," Skye told him. "He's one of us, too."

"That's so cool," Yo-Yo said.

"Yeah," Sebastian agreed. He looked deep in thought, and Skye didn't think it was about Eden's disappearance.

"What do we do now?" she asked Coulson.

"May and I will fly out there. He's probably quite in shock and depending on where he ended up, we may need to..." he twiddled his fingers.

"Cover it up?" Skye asked bluntly. "Why not me?"

"You need to stay here," Coulson told her. "There's the other three, and I don't feel comfortable leaving it all to Lincoln."

"What will you do to him when you find him?" Sebastian asked.

"Do to him? Nothing," Coulson said. "We'll make sure he's okay, deal with any problems that might have occurred, and talk to him. See what he wants to do. We're not going to drag him back here, kicking and screaming, if that's what you're asking. He'll have the option, of course, to help him get a better handle on his power, but if he truly doesn't want to come back, he wouldn't have to."

Sebastian nodded. "I guess that's reasonable," he said.

"I better go find May and tell her we've got to leave," Coulson said. "She and Andrew better not be drinking all my scotch again," he muttered, but Skye heard him.

"Yeah, you don't want a drunk pilot," she quipped. Coulson glared at her. "Or else you'd have to use Hunter as your pilot," she continued, ignoring the glare. "And I doubt he'd be very happy about that."

"It would interrupt their plans," Coulson allowed.

"Plans?" Skye questioned.

"Vacation," Coulson told her. "I'm surprised you hadn't heard. They're leaving tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Skye gasped. "Til when?"

"I don't know. Giving them open-ended leave was the alternative to them quitting S.H.I.E.L.D altogether."

"Bobbi wouldn't quit S.H.I.E.L.D," Skye argued.

"Maybe. Maybe not," Coulson said. "She's been through the wringer lately."

"Uh, not to interrupt this little gossip fest, but Eden?" Yo-Yo said.

"Right," Coulson said, and disappeared into the base.

"Well, this evening's been full of surprises all told," Skye mused. "I should find Lincoln. Tell him there's a new teleporter in town. Or, I guess not in town anymore."

Yo-Yo grinned at her. "Teleportation. That's so cool. I wonder what mine is."

"Yes, me too," Sebastian said quietly. "Skye, if I might have a word with you later..."

"Yeah, of course," Skye told him. "Just let me wrap this up first. You guys ready to go in?"

"Depends. Are we going to be able to come out again?"

"Of course."


	30. CATERPILLAR, part 3

_Disclaimer: Not mine._

 _Author's Note: Whatever did Sebastian want to talk to Skye about? Guess you better read and find out.(There's some easter eggs for the comic book readers among you here.) Next time, we'll get back to Simmons. Let me know what you think?_

* * *

 **C.A.T.E.R.P.I.L.L.A.R., part 3**

As Skye was talking to Lincoln about Eden's new teleportation ability, she could see Sebastian lurking out of the corner of her eye. _He must really want that talk_ , she thought, and excused herself from Lincoln. _What could he want?_

"Hey Sebastian, what's up?" she asked, walking over to him.

"Perhaps we might talk privately?" he suggested, motioning towards an unused room in the med bay at the end of the hall.

"Sure," she said, following him in there.

"I know the clinical trial, if that is what this is, is finishing soon. I was wondering if I could stay," he said, getting directly to the point.

"Why?" she asked, just as bluntly. "I kind of thought you were rearing to go home."

"As Eden just demonstrated, our new abilities could come on at any time and we might not be able to control them. I would like to be taught how to use mine when that happens."

"That's reasonable," she said. "Of course you can stay. Is that all?"

"No," he said. He reached into the pocket of the overcoat he wore everywhere and pulled out a book. "If you are to teach me, I think I can trust you. This was left to me by my father."

"Who was your father?" Skye asked, taking the book.

"Anthony Ludgate Druid," he said.

"Oh."

"You don't sound surprised."

"I had my suspicions when I saw your last name," Skye admitted.

"Did you know him?"

"No, I merely saw a file once," she said. "He was...a magician, right?"

"Yes, in a way. He studied the occult, Far Eastern mysticism, Druidic rituals, hypnotism, yogic practices...all in addition to his career as a psychiatrist. He told me that I could have the same power he had, and he gave me this book. My time in New Orleans was part of my search for answers. Before New Orleans, it was New York. Do you know Dr. Stephen Strange?"

"Of him, yes," Skye admitted.

"His practice was boarded up. I thought, with the regional interest in folk magic, I might learn something in New Orleans. I didn't expect it to lead me here."

"We can help you," Skye said, "but there's no guarantee your abilities as a result of the Terrigen crystals will match those of your father's." It was likely his father had been an Inhuman descendant, she thought, though she'd have to talk to Lincoln about the genealogies to find out if he had undergone Terrigenesis. My powers were not often hereditary; look at her powers and those of her mother's.

He nodded, and passed her the book. "Have you seen this language before?" he asked.

She opened it, and flipped through it. "I'm sorry, I can't help you here," she said, passing it back.

"Oh."

There was silence between them, but Skye was thinking hard. Should she? She went for it. "As a civilian, you do not have the resources to pursue this line of research. However, if you were to join us, we might be able to help."

Sebastian gave her a look of surprise. "Join S.H.I.E.L.D.?" he asked, skeptically.

"I'm starting up a new project," she said. "Project C.A.T.E.R.P.I.L.L.A.R. Yo-Yo's already on board. You'd be a part of that. You'd have to train up, and you'd be using whatever abilities you were granted for the greater good." She hadn't really had time to work on her pitch, but it sounded okay.

"Yeah, okay," he said slowly.

"Good," she responded. At least Coulson was gone. By the time he got back, hopefully she could prove that this wasn't a bad idea after all. She didn't even know what abilities either of them had at this point.

Like he was reading her mind, Sebastian asked, "Is there any way to...trigger these...powers?"

"Why don't we go talk to Lincoln?" Skye suggested. He nodded.

They found Lincoln not too far from where Skye left him earlier.

"You're back," he said.

"Sebastian has some questions for you," Skye said, motioning Sebastian to continue.

"Uhh...how are abilities triggered?" he said awkwardly.

"Once you have control, you can trigger them at will," he said. "But for the first time, it's hard to say. Often, strong emotion can bring it out. Sometimes, it can happen without you really noticing it at first, like dreams that turn out to be prophetic," he said, with a sidelong glace at Skye. "Have you noticed anything unusual lately?" he asked Sebastian.

"Not really."

"Well, then, your powers will reveal themselves. You just have to give it time."

"Oh, okay," Sebastian said, with a dejected look on his face. "Well, thanks for your help," he added, and walked away.

"What was that all about?" Lincoln asked Skye, once he was gone.

"His father was Anthony Ludgate Druid," Skye told him. "He's hoping he inherited his father's powers."

"Oh...OH," Lincoln said, his confusion clearing up. "You think he was an Inhuman, since his powers were active?"

"I was hoping you could tell me," Skye told him wryly. "Being that you're the only one with the genealogies."

"We'd have to go back to Afterlife. If he underwent Terrigenesis, it would probably be within the last fifty years. I didn't bring those with me."

"Well, we have no pilot so we have to wait on that. Pity Eden didn't stick around."

"Another teleporter, popping up so soon after we lost Gordon? Crazy how these things work."

"Crazy's right. Do you think Eden's powers work the same way as Gordon's did?"

"I couldn't say right now," Lincoln said.

Skye nodded. "How's Jerry?"

"He's struggling. He wants to go home."

"You have more experience with me with the physical changes. Do you think that's a good idea?"

"He's going to get some funny looks, but it's not an extreme as it could be. I'm going to suggest to him that he pass it off as jaundice."

"The liver disease symptom?"

"That's right." He considered her. "I'm surprised you knew that."

"Grey's Anatomy marathons," she admitted, a little bashfully.

"That is not a realistic medical show," he insisted.

"I never said it was," she countered. "It's basically a soap opera in a hospital. But, you learn some terms. Like jaundice."

"Humph," was his only response.

"So, Jerry," she prompted.

"I admit, I'm a little hesitant to let any of them go before they get a handle on what their abilities are and how to control them. It could be..."

"Messy?" she suggested.

"Yeah, let's go with that. In Afterlife, being able to stay until you had control of your abilities was one of the conditions for passing through the Mist. But I guess this scenario isn't exactly the same."

"No, it isn't," she said a little sadly. In some ways, the system the Inhumans used seemed almost the most humane, oddly enough. No one was forced into anything. "But on a good note, Sebastian and Yo-Yo both want to stick around, at least until they've learned how to use their abilities."

"It's good they decided that on their own," he said.

Skye nodded. She wasn't going to tell him about their potential involvement in C.A.T.E.R.P.I.L.L.A.R. Lincoln had been...less than enthused the last time she brought that up.

"Did you get pizza?" she asked, changing the topic before it hit potentially dangerous waters.

"Yes, I ate with Jerry," he said. "It wasn't Chicago deep-dish, but it was okay."

"Not all of us can get to Chicago and back in seconds to satisfy your taste buds," she retorted.

"Too bad." He paused. "Maybe, when we have a chance, we can go to Chicago ourselves and get some? I know the best place."

She smiled. "Yeah, that would be nice. Look, I gotta do some stuff."

"Go, go." He shooed her off, trying hard to hide his smile. He lost the battle, but not until after she was gone. He had invited Skye on a date, and she had accepted. Granted, it was a someday date, but still.

* * *

 _Author's Note 2: I wasn't altogether thrilled with this chapter, but after rewriting pieces of it twice, I've decided to just go ahead and post it. If you have any suggestions, I'd be grateful to hear them._


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